In the lead up to Hollands and Blair’s debut in the Southern Counties East Football League this weekend I look back to a week when another team from the Medway Towns (Lordswood) first joined what was then the Kent League.

In the week leading up to Lordswood’s debut in the Kent League which was a home game there was excitement and trepidation and worrying that everything was in place as they wanted to make a good impression.”

Hollands & Blair’s debut would probably be excitement and trepidation and Pride as all their hard work has paid off.

The main differences as far as I can see between Lordswood joining the Kent League & Hollands & Blair joining the Southern Counties East League are numerous.

Firstly then the Kent League was primarily Kent teams rather than “Metropolitan Kent” as seems to be the case today, which will obviously potentially mean more travelling for Paul Piggott’s side.

To prove the point, the still relatively newly named “Southern Counties East League ” now has teams from Kent, Surrey and Sussex. As a result the new League name is probably more professional than the previous.

It’s without doubt in my mind that the grounds have improved in the intervening time which can only be good for the future of the League.

And perhaps the biggest bonus is that there are more chances to move up the Pyramid a lot easier that it was back then in Lordswood’s first season at this level.

I will be at Greatness Park to cover Hollands and Blair debut in the SCEFL this Saturday.