The Tanners finished the season with an emphatic win that belied their league position against a side who had flirted with a play-off place.

Mickey Stephens started with reserves star, Steve Barilli partnering Tom Hutchings in the attack and Kev Terry playing in a deeper and wider position on the right. Jean-Serge Musungu also gained a rare staring spot.

The match started as an end of season game would have expected to but that soon changed as the Tanners started to get into gear. With the new season in everyone’s minds, it was the lively Barilli who made the first break for the home side. An impressive starter for the reserves, Barilli has gained a reputation for his pace but, on this occasion, it was his his composure in front of goal that counted the most. One of the first of many flowing Leatherhead moves saw the ball played to Jean- Serge Musungu wide on the right. His low cross was met by Barilli with a low, sweet shot that found the back of the net with ease. It was a goal that would give the young striker a good deal of confidence as the game went on.

Barilli showed his aptitude just a few minutes later when a Tom Hutchings cross went over his head but prompted him to chase the ball down and force a corner that was not capitalised upon but showed the degree of promise that he showed on stepping up several levels into the Ryman league.

Midway through the half, against the form book but not against the run of play, Leatherhead extended their lead with a fine strike from their leading scorer. Tom Hutchings. Although the through ball should have been dealt with more assurance by the centre of the Sittingbourne defence, the way that. The assurance that Hutchings struck the ball across the hapless Matt Reed, showed why the Tanners striker is in the leading Ryman League scorers chart.

On balance the home side had the better of the first half with their Kent visitors showing some good approach play but getting very little change from a Tanners defence w lead impeccably by Iain Hendry.

In the midfield, Stewart Holmes was putting in his usual commanding performance, breaking down Sittingbourne attacks and finding time to feed his forwards with an accuracy that, in recent weeks, has not been matched by many of his team mates.

Sittingbourne did not reach the fringes of the play-off places by accident. They contained much of the home side’s options in the midfield but just could not find that killer ball that would unlock a stubborn Tanners defence – more than ably supported by Chris Lewington who put in yet another assured performance to keep yet another clean sheet.

The second half saw the visitors take the game to the Mole Valley side. With two changes to their line-up at the interval, the Kent side showed more enterprise and pinned the Tanners back in their own half for long periods of the game. Leatherhead were not about to fold and when Dev Williams played in Tom Hutchings, his strike was finger tipped away to safety by Reed to keep the margin down to just the two goals.

If there was any doubts about the Tanners superiority, they were dispelled with ten minutes to go when. The lively Kev Terry picked up the ball midway in his own half, outpaced a floundering Sittingbourne defence, cut into the area and struck a low shot that buried itself in the back of the net inside the near post. It was a fitting end to a first class performance by the Tanners forward – and the whole team.

Many of the home supporters would be left wondering why their side could not pull together similar showings that would have seen off many of the Tanners problems this year – but no one could deny that this was the type of performance that all felt that the Leatherhead were capable of despite it being in an end of season game with little at stake for either side.

Team Lewingotn, Williams, M’Baye, Hendry, Shannon, Holmes, Jones, Barilli (Williams), Hutchings, Terry (Mette-Sissoks), Musungu