The new 2020-2021 season is under way. The league committee is delighted that football has restarted and are looking forward to seeing how the season unfolds. September has seen some excellent performances and really interesting results. Below is a division by division review of September.

Jim Hampson Division One

Division One has a competitive look to it this season, with lots of teams that could challenge for promotion. Last season, Russellers, Eltham Town Reserves and GroundHoppers were looking to gain the second promotion spot behind Teviot Rangers and will be back this season. Agenda had fallen away and will look to improve in their second season. Welling Park Reserves, Red Velvet Reserves and Farnborough Old Boys Guild 3rds will be hoping to improve on last year, whilst Lewisham Athletic return to the division. West Bromley Albion have come down from the Premier Division to rebuild their side. Eden Park and South Dulwich have been moved up from Division Two and will hope to prove that they can compete at this level. Lewisham Project make up the 12, with an ambitious set-up of youth teams and some excellent senior players.

Red Velvet Reserves have started the season in brilliant form, with a huge win over Eden Park (7-3) was followed by a closer victory over South Dulwich (0-2) and a even narrower win over Lewisham Project (1-0). Red Velvet are such a well-run club, with great links to players and manager Jim Kenny will be hoping to keep up their charge for promotion, banking on the goals of Dane Keenan, who already has 5 in 3 games.

Eden Park opened with that surprisingly heavy defeat to Red Velvet Reserves (3-7), before finding their feet in Division One with a win against Lewisham Project (3-0), a draw with GroundHoppers (2-2) and a thrashing of Welling Park Reserves (10-1). They will be looking for promotion, having been robbed of a certain Division Two title win last year. James Hunter already has 5 goals this season and Andrea Carrera, who scored for fun last season, has 4 in 4.

West Bromley Albion have adjusted really well to life in Division One. Having struggled for a couple of seasons in the Premier Division, they have 2 wins from 2, beating Eltham Town Reserves (6-3) and Russellers (4-1). They are impressive wins and Andy Brobbey had 4 in those 2 games. They look certain to be in the mix for the title.

GroundHoppers are unbeaten after 4 games, with an opening day win over Eltham Town Reserves (4-0), followed by 3 draws, against Agenda (1-1), Eden Park (2-2) and South Dulwich (0-0). Excellent cup runs, including a semi-final appearance in the London Junior Cup meant that they had played many fewer games than their title contenders last season. This year they will be hoping to be in the top two.

South Dulwich have adjusted well to life in Division One, after being moved up from Division Two. After drawing their opening match with Russellers (2-2), they lost to Red Velvet Reserves (0-2), before a big win over Agenda (5-1) and a creditable draw with GroundHoppers (0-0) A side who have been able to beat anyone in Division Two over the last two seasons, they will hope for greater consistency this year to make a charge for promotion.

Agenda also have 5 points from their first 4 games, with an opening day win against Welling Park Reserves (3-0), followed by a draw with Agenda (1-1), a heavy loss to South Dulwich (1-5), before recovering their form with a decent draw against Lewisham Athletic (3-3). They will hope to pick up their form, or they will be mid-table, like last year.

Russellers have had a mixed start, with a draw on the opening weekend with South Dulwich (3-3), a win against Lewisham Athletic (2-1) and a loss to West Bromley Albion (1-4). Having lost some players over the summer, they may not be as strong as last year, but are always tough to beat.

Farnborough Old Boys Guild 3rds have won their only game, 3-1 against Lewisham Project, which is really promising for them. Hopefully they will improve on last season, where they struggled. This is certainly a great start.

Lewisham Athletic are back in the league and have proved as competitive as ever, with a narrow loss to Russellers (1-2) followed by an entertaining draw with Agenda (3-3). A team who will be difficult to play against for anyone.

Eltham Town Reserves could not win before Christmas last season before being unbeatable afterwards So far they have only picked up 1 point, with a loss to GroundHoppers (0-4) followed by a draw with Welling Park Reserves (3-3) and a loss to West Bromley Albion (3-6). In such a competitive division, where everyone will take points off everyone, they cannot be discounted from a promotion push. The goals of Greg Williams will help, he has 7 in 3 already.

Welling Park Reserves have struggled over pre-season and at the start of the year. Following a loss to Agenda (0-3) they drew with Eltham Town Reserves (3-3) before a heavy defeat to Eden Park (1-10). With such a successful first team and a mix of youthful talent and experience skill, they will surely improve on this start.

Lewisham Project have found their introduction to the Bromley and South London Football League tough. 3 losses in their opening 3 games will be hard to take – Eden Park (0-3), Red Velvet Reserves (0-1) and Farnborough OBG 3rds (1-3). The last two were tight games and it will not be long before Lewisham Project start to pick up points.