The 2014-2015 Season Review from guest blogger, Roger Butcher

Tooting’s season reached a disappointing conclusion on Thursday evening as we lost 3-2 to Hendon in the final of the London Senior Cup Final. Despite starting the game as rank outsiders and missing 6 first choice players due to injuries and unavailability, Tooting started brightly and were rewarded for their good play when a Nathan Gordon free kick was deflected in to the goal to give us a lead in the 37th minute. We were still holding our own in the 2nd half when Hendon were reduced to 10 men when a defender was sent off for preventing a goalscoring opportunity. The Tooting faithful were beginning to put the champagne on ice but Hendon had other ideas. Despite their numerical disadvantage, they showed why they have done so well this season and began to press us back towards the end of the match. And we were unable to hold out and Hendon equalised with just 3 minutes of normal time remaining. The game went into extra time, but suddenly the 10 men of Hendon looked much stronger and scored 2 goals in quick succession to take an unassailable lead. Tooting did get one goal back with a few minutes left when a Francis Quarm drive found the back of the net. And we came agonisingly close to an injury time equaliser following a scramble in the box, but it was not to be and we had to settle for runners up medals.
 

This game has turned out to be manager Craig Tanner’s swansong. Tooting’s top brass have decided that a change of management was required in order to bring about our best chance of achieving promotion and informed Craig that his services would not be required next season. His assistant, Adam Moriarty will also be departing. It brings to an end a period of relative stability at the club during which time the manager has played an enjoyable style of football which has brought him a lot of admirers, both from inside and outside of our club. Nevertheless, the results haven’t followed and an 11th place finish this season with less points than the previous season was deemed not good enough and hence the managerial change.  Craig’s first season in charge, and also his first as a manager was considered okay and most people probably thought he had built a solid base to launch a promotion bid this season. This season the target was promotion, but apart from a short period just before Christmas, we were never seriously in contention for promotion, nor a play off place. So Craig and Adam leave with the best wishes from the fans and the club who by and large have enjoyed having him at the helm. They will be replaced next season by Frank Wilson as manager and Mark Hams as his assistant. I will give more details on the new managerial pair in my blogs over the summer.

The highlight of Craig’s tenure has to be the two games against Bishops Stortford in the FA Cup this season. Against a side two divisions above us we showed a combination of steel and style to get a 0-0 draw in the away game and then beat them 3-1 at home in the replay. This game was predictably voted as the best performance of the season in the supporter’s club awards ceremony. Dan Summers was voted player of the season and was also given the goal of the season award for his stunning effort against Walton Casuals.
 

So that’s it from me for this season. Like a lot of football fans, I find that the first few weeks of the close season are quite relaxing and gives you the chance to do something a bit different on a Saturday. However, it isn’t long before we’re itching for the new season to start with all the positivity and optimism that a new season brings! The first pre season friendlies are normally around mid July with the league program generally starting in early August. So until then, have a happy summer and hopefully see a few new faces down at Imperial Fields next season.

Keep up to date with the goings on at www.tmu-fc.co.uk