The wait is over!

The curtain finally comes up on the Peacocks’ first ever season at Southern Premier level when Staines Town visit the Viridor Stadium tomorrow afternoon (11th August), kick-off 3.00pm.

A momentous 2017-18 campaign saw Town romp to the West Division title by a massive 19 points after losing just one Evo-Stik League fixture all season and remaining undefeated away from home in all competitions, meaning the Peacocks go into their inaugural game at Step 3 tomorrow defending a 34 league match unbeaten run and having not lost a game in any competition since Bognor Regis Town won an FA Trophy tie at the Viridor in December. Town will be further boosted by an excellent pre-season in which they have scored 21 goals in winning five of their six warm-up matches and drawing against a strong Exeter City side.

These impressive stats will undoubtedly mean Town go into their first ever meeting with Staines in a confident mood. However it’s the start of a long season and all sides start from scratch so they will be taking nothing for granted against a team which competed in the Isthmian League Premier Division last season, finishing in eighth place. Their pre-season has seen them win just the one game against London Colney with four defeats and a draw coming from their other friendlies.

The Peacocks name a virtually full strength squad including summer signing Andrew ‘Rocky’ Neal who has been in imperious form in pre-season, knocking in nine goals from six starts. Nuno Felix is also back in contention after missing the Bristol City game due to illness. However international clearance has still not come through from the Portuguese FA for trialist Douglas Camilo so he is unlikely to be involved.

Manager Leigh Robinson remarked: “Tomorrow is an exciting day and one that a lot of people at the club have been working towards for a long, long time. As a group we worked really hard for this last year and naturally are determined to do ourselves justice in the league above and hopefully this can start tomorrow. Pre-season went really well for us, we have a clean bill of health, confidence is high and the hunger appears to be at the same level as last year. Often crowds are a bit down in August with people being on holiday and what not, but hopefully there’ll be a decent turn out tomorrow, plenty of noise like last year and that the game will live up to expectations.”

Chairman Kevin Sturmey is also keenly anticipating the club’s first foray up to Step 3. He commented: “I’m sure everyone is excited about the new season as it’s new territory for us. I’m looking forward to the season starting and getting in to a routine as the closed season and pre-season is just non-stop. We all try to get a holiday and some time off but it is never enough here at the Viridor Stadium as something is happening every day. I guess we keep trying to push boundaries but we will never have everything done in time with such an early start to the season. Brian Pollard has worked wonders with a small band of loyal volunteers who have been helping modernise what we have here and with our vision to develop further we are always looking ahead and trying to raise standards. The matches we play are the release from the constant work so I enjoy match days!”

The Peacocks changed their logo in the close season and their new kit will proudly display the new peacock emblem. However it will not be on show tomorrow as Sturmey explained: “Our new kits have not arrived due to them being bespoke but rest assured they will be here very soon. Our home kit will be the traditional claret and sky blue and the away kit will be all yellow with the 3rd kit for away games being all royal blue which we will be playing in for the first three away games. We have secured five new sponsors for the six spaces available on the shirts and shorts and it’s a two year deal so hopefully the fans will buy both home and away shirts to last the two seasons. I hope we can see our fan base grow even further this season as while there are no points in pre-season it has been wonderful watching those games with the potential in this squad.”

Admission Prices:
Adults: £10
Conc: £8
U18: £5
U14 & Season Ticket Holders: Free