The 2023–24 Southern Counties East Football League season was the 58th in the history of the Southern Counties East Football League, and the eighth year the competition will have two divisions, the Premier Division and Division One, at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system.
The provisional club allocations for steps 5 and 6 were announced by The Football Association on 15 May 2023. Starting this season, the Premier Division (step 5) in the league promotes two clubs; one as champions and one via a four-team play-off. This replaced the previous inter-step play-off system. For this season only, there was only one club relegated from the division.
Premier Division
The Premier Division comprised 16 clubs from the previous season, along with five new clubs after Erith & Belvedere and Phoenix Sports were promoted to Isthmian League South East Division and Canterbury City and K Sports were relegated to Division One.
The five clubs joining the division were: Corinthian - Relegated from Isthmian League South East Division Faversham Town - Relegated from Isthmian League South East Division Lydd Town - Promoted from Division One Snodland Town - Promoted from Division One VCD Athletic - Relegated from Isthmian League South East Division
Premier Division table
Play-offs
Semifinals
Final
Results table
Stadia and locations
ClubLocationStadiumCapacityBearsted Otham Honey Lane 1,000Corinthian Longfield Gay Dawn Farm 2,000Deal Town Deal Charles Sports Ground 2,000Erith Town Thamesmead Bayliss Avenue 800Faversham Town Faversham Salters Lane 2,000Fisher Rotherhithe St Paul's Sports Ground 2,500Glebe Chislehurst Foxbury Avenue 1,200Hollands & Blair Gillingham Star Meadow 1,000Holmesdale Bromley Oakley Road Kennington Kennington The Homelands (groundshare with Ashford United) 3,200Lordswood Lordswoood Martyn Grove 600Lydd Town Lydd The Lindsey Field 1,000Punjab United Gravesend Elite Venue 600Rusthall Rusthall The Jockey Farm Stadium 1,500Snodland Town Snodland Potyns Sports Ground 1,000Stansfeld Chislehurst Foxbury Avenue (groundshare with Glebe) 1,200Sutton Athletic Hextable Lower Road Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells Culverden Stadium 3,750VCD Athletic Crayford The Oakwood 1,180Welling Town Welling Phoenix Sports Ground (groundshare with Phoenix Sports) 2,000Whitstable Town Whitstable The Belmont Ground 3,000
Division One
Division One consisted of sixteen teams, down from eighteen teams in the previous season. Teams that left Division One from the previous season were Snodland Town and Lydd Town who had been promoted to the Premier Division and Bermondsey Town who were relegated to the Kent County League
The two new teams that joined the division were: Canterbury City - Relegated from Premier Division K Sports - Relegated from Premier Division
Division One table
Play-offs
Semifinals
Final
Results table
Stadia and locations
ClubLocationStadiumCapacityAFC Whyteleafe Whyteleafe Church Road 2,000Bridon Ropes Charlton Meridian Sports & Social Club Canterbury City Canterbury Hartsdown Park (groundshare with Margate) 3,000Croydon Croydon Croydon Arena 8,000Faversham Strike Force Faversham Salters Lane (groundshare with Faversham Town) 2,000FC Elmstead Hextable Lower Road (groundshare with Sutton Athletic) Forest Hill Park Catford Ladywell Arena (groundshare with Lewisham Borough) Greenways Gravesend K Sports Cobdown (groundshare with K Sports) K Sports Aylesford K Sports Cobdown Larkfield & New Hythe Wanderers Larkfield Larkfield & New Hythe Sports Club 3,000Lewisham Borough Catford Ladywell Arena Meridian VP Charlton Meridian Sports & Social Club Rochester United Strood Rochester United Sports Ground 1,000Sporting Club Thamesmead Thamesmead Bayliss Avenue (groundshare with Erith Town) 800Staplehurst Monarchs Staplehurst Jubilee Sports Ground 1,000Tooting Bec Tooting Bec High Road (groundshare with Chipstead) 2,000
League Challenge Cup The 2023–24 SCEFL Challenge Cup was contested by all 37 clubs from both the Premier and First divisions (indicated by '(PD)' and '(FD)' respectively in the results listings below).
Defending champions Hollands & Blair (who defeated Fisher in the previous season's final) were knocked-out in the second round.
The cup was won by Erith Town for the second occasion in their history (having previously been winners in the 2007–08 season). The final match was played at a neutral venue, this season at Star Meadow the home of Hollands & Blair F.C. Calendar Round Dates Matches Clubs First round 2 October to 4 October 5 37 → 32 Second round 31 October to 21 November 16 32 → 16 Third round 29 November to 9 January 8 16 → 8 Quarter-finals 16 January to 10 February 4 8 → 4 Semi-finals 20 February to 27 February 2 4 → 2 Final 29 March 1 2 → 1 First round Ten clubs participated in five first round ties, with byes for the other 27 clubs.
TieHome team (tier)ScoreAway team (tier) 1 SC Thamesmead (FD) 0–3 Lewisham Borough (FD) 75 2 Deal Town (PD) 8–2 Faversham Strike Force (FD) 370 3 Canterbury City (FD) 1–2 Snodland Town (PD) 67 4 Bridon Ropes (FD) 0–2 Croydon (FD) 40 5 Sutton Athletic (PD) 2–3 Welling United (PD) 37
Second round Thirty-two clubs competed in sixteen second round times.
TieHome team (tier)ScoreAway team (tier) 1 Bearsted (PD) 0–2 Deal Town (PD) 73 2 Erith Town (PD) 3–1 Tooting Bec (FD) 53 3 Holmesdale (PD) 3–3 Fisher (PD) 38 4 Kennington (PD) 3–3 Hollands & Blair (PD) 125 5 Larkfield & New Hythe Wanderers (FD) 2–2 Rochester United (FD) 6 Meridian VP (FD) 2–0 Croydon (FD) 20 7 Rusthall (PD) 4–0 Forest Hill Park (FD) 8 Stansfeld (PD) 2–6 Corinthian (PD) 9 Whitstable Town (PD) 5–2 Lordswood (PD) 172 10 Lewisham Borough (FD) 3–0 Welling Town (PD) 11 Greenways (FD) 1–3 Snodland Town (PD) 12 Faversham Town (PD) 3–1 Lydd Town (PD) 186 13 Punjab United (PD) 1–0 FC Elmstead (FD) 77 14 Tunbridge Wells (PD) 2–0 Glebe (PD) 15 K Sports (FD) 0–4 Staplehurst Monarchs (FD) 16 VCD Athletic (PD) 2–2 AFC Whyteleafe (PD) 80
Third round Sixteen clubs competed in eight third round times.
TieHome team (tier)ScoreAway team (tier) 1 Snodland Town (PD) 0–1 Tunbridge Wells (PD) 104 2 Erith Town (PD) 3–0 Rusthall (PD) 53 3 Larkfield & New Hythe Wanderers (FD) 0–1 Faversham Town (PD) 60 4 Meridian VP (FD) 1–3 Corinthian (PD) 30 5 Punjab United (PD) 1–1 Holmesdale (PD) 84 6 Kennington (PD) 1–0 Whitstable Town (PD) 102 7 AFC Whyteleafe (FD) 2–0 Lewisham Borough (FD) 168 8 Deal Town (PD) 5–1 Staplehurst Monarchs (FD) 256
Quarter-finals
TieHome team (tier)ScoreAway team (tier) 1 AFC Whyteleafe (FD) 2–1 Tunbridge Wells (PD) 2 Corinthian (PD) 2–1 Faversham Town (PD) 80 3 Kennington (PD) 0–5 Deal Town (PD) 151 4 Holmesdale (PD) 1–3 Erith Town (PD)
Semi-finals First leg TieHome team (tier)ScoreAway team (tier) 1 Corinthian (PD) 3–0 AFC Whyteleafe (FD) 78 2 Deal Town (PD) 2–1 Erith Town (PD) 473 Second leg TieHome team (tier)ScoreAway team (tier) 1 AFC Whyteleafe (FD) 2–2 (agg. 2–5) Corinthian (PD) 2 Erith Town (PD) 4–2 (agg 5–4) Deal Town (PD) 171 Final
sources: Final: Other matches:
Division One Cup The 2023–24 SCEFL Division One Cup was contested by the sixteen clubs of Division One. This was a re-introduction of a cup competition for the league's second tier clubs, previously contested as the Reserves Division cup in the 2012–13 season.
The competition was organised with an initial phase comprising four groups of four teams who played on a home and away basis with the group winners progressing to the semi-finals. Lewisham Borough were the cup winners. Group Stage <onlyinclude> Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Semi-finals Home teamScoreAway team Meridian VP 0–4 Larkfield & New Hythe Wanderers Lewisham Borough 3–1 Faversham Strike Force Final Team 1ScoreTeam 2 Larkfield & New Hythe Wanderers 2–3 Lewisham Borough Source:
References