Steyning Town players and fans savour a day for the ages – but season’s not over yet

After a hard season, and an almighty battle with a number of sides, skipper Jack Barnes got his hands on the SCFL premier division trophy, presented by league president Paul Beard after Saturday’s game.

And it didn't matter a jot to any of the 667 supporters in the ground that the heavens opened.

Young and old celebrated side by side; many of the young players’ parents were not even born last time Steyning got their hands on this trophy back in the mid 1980s.

A moment of high excitement and great reflection for those involved at the club; great reward for a huge amount of effort on and off the pitch in recent years.

Isthmian football awaits, another big challenge ahead, but a challenge the club is ready to tackle head on; or at least they will be ready in a couple of months. Once the hangovers subside, the hard work continues.

As the final match itself, it was a quirk of the fixtures that the champions had to face already relegated AFC Uckfield. The visitors had had a torrid season and were struggling to raise a side but full credit to the management team and young players who came across and put on a show of spirit in incredibly hard circumstances.

Steyning pretty much had the game wrapped up in the first ten minutes and two headers from Charlie Meehan and one from Harry Shooman suggested a cricket score might be incoming. It was 7-1 by half time as further goals from Meehan, completing a hat-trick, Sam Remfry, and two from Joe Radley-Martin. Uckfields response came form a rather bizarre own goal.

The second half brought further goals from Shooman (making it 27 for the season), Ryan Hallett and perhaps the goal of the afternoon was the tenth – and the final league goal of the season – for Tom Chalaye. Then came a party that carried on long in to the night.

The season isn’t over: Town travel to Wick next Tuesday to take on Midhurst in the Peter Bentley Cup semi final.