Player Profile

Wayne was a very shy guy who lacked confidence in himself before he kicked a ball in anger back in 1997, but how he has changed as by the end of that season he was voted Player of the Year. He has played more confidently and with more purpose and passion in his belly. He is a well liked character and even though he is still very quiet he lets his football do all the talking.

Consistent, friendly funny and very polite, it is amazing that he has got booked, but such is the drive and determination in the old man. We must all have our faults, and Wayne's is that he is a season ticket holder at the Ar*enal. But the only reason he gets the tickets is his twin brother and Silvand Wiltord used to sorts him out before he too realised it wasn't worth playing for them. But we would have Wayne over Ar*enal's record signing any day (well maybe not, put we are trying to be nice in his profile)

Having been a consistant player in his first five seasons and helping the club progress, he then committed the ultimate sin and fell in love, and chose a girl over his football. Whilst we consider this move foolish, we have to respect his wishes. He made a few cameo appearances over the next few seasons but he wasn't the same. During this time he did collect his 100th game record to enter Esprit's record books and also collected his first trophy with the club during the Creative Printers Cup Tournament in 2004. We all love Wayne, and we dont think we have seen the last of him just yet.

Player Profile

Josh has been a valuable player to the club over the years. When he first started he was low on confidence normally hiding behind others but he pushed himself and has excelled as a player. He played an important part in the midfield using his skill, pace and crossing on the left wing or his accurate passing in the centre. He improved with every season, cutting in more from the left wing and used his finely tuned skills to more effect.

His love and passion for the game was evident to see from the way he acted and performed for the club as he started to make himself heard by becoming more vocal, and when he was quiet he let his feet do the talking whenever he got the chance. He was awarded the most Outstanding Contribution in 1999 which proved his worth.

The next couple of seasons saw Josh at his very best as he proved to become a a great attacking player, His set pieces on corners helped the team score many goals, part of the reason which lead him to gain the first "most assists" record in 2000 with 13 assists. The following season as well as keeping up his high level of assists he scored his fair share of goals too, as he became a bit of a dead ball specialist, scoring some great free kicks along the way. He scored a personal best of 11 goals that season and narrowly missed out on the Player of the Year award.

It was evident that he cared about the club with his performances as he also tracted back to help the defence when needed and he was always looking forward to training and matchdays. Unfortuntely for Esprit after 5 seasons Josh decided he needed a change of environment. In his final season in 2003, Josh got married to Anna, his childhood sweetheart and of course family life took a preference to sunday league football. During that season though he did get to the 100 game landmark with the club and in one game against Gardener's Arms in the cup he put on a great performance as he scored two fantastic goals, a delicate chip and a trademark freekick. He played his last game at the end of the season in the infamous game with the "Runo broken arm slingshot" celebration.

Josh Redland was with the club between 1998 to 2003, playing a total of 109 matches and scored 27 goals during that period, which is a good return on a player who couldnt kick a ball straight before he joined the club. Josh is now happily retired and we sincerely wish him and his family the best of luck especially the new arrivial, daughter Ruby.

Player Profile

Greg is a highly skilled forward with excellent dribbling skill and accurate shooting. He has a hunger for goals hence why he is constantly craving to score. In his first season his dribbling skills were utilised on the wings, but he established himself as a centre forward after impressing in training. His all round game greatly improved under some careful guidance from the management and his sense of play helped the team gets more assists and he also won his fairshare of free kicks for the team too. Due to his petite frame he was often underestimated by the oppostion, but the centre backs just found it difficult to take the ball away from his feet without fouling him. When he is in his element and has the ball under his control defenders rarely look comfortable.Greg has helped the team get out of sticky situations, sometimes tactically being used coming on as a sub and surprising players with his skill.

Having broken into the team at the ripe old age of 18 and having a fairly consistant debut season, he really came to age in the next two seasons as he went on an awesome run of form in front of goal. He proven himself by finishing top goalscorer with 20 and 21 goals respectively. Greg played almost every game in his three seasons with the club which proved his love for the club and the game, and he has definately grew into a better player every season that he was with the club. He has always been a skillful player ever since he was scouted in the local park kicking a ball about by the legendary Runo, but playing on a regular basic and having a willingness to learn has helped him progress even further.

Generally a very confident person and always up for a laugh, he could boost the morale in the dressing room before the game with his poor jokes, mainly about gimps. He thought everyone laughed at his jokes, but he couldn't be further away from the truth as we are actually all laughing at him. Seriously everyone enjoyed watching him getting into mischief. that alone was worth getting up early on a Sunday morning.

Unfortunetely for us, his family decided to move to Eastbourne so we lost his talents, but as Im sure he is thankful to his team mates, as with their help he left the club as the current highest league goalscorer and second in the total Esprit goalscoring records, only a single goal shy of the target. His final record of 85 matches and 54 goals is a record to be proud of.

Player Profile

Rob was one of the original players for Esprit back on day one, and he played a major role for the club especially in the earlier years as he was always trying to help out wherever possile. Rob played in the club's first ever game against Brookfield and was awarded the man of the match for that game, hence becoming the first ever player to earn an accolade for the club [ see classic matches ].

He started his Esprit career with such promise that he earned the first Outstanding Contribution Award in the club's first season back in 1997. Another first for Rob was he took the club's first ever penalty in a friendly game against Newventus, which was neatly dispatched into the bottom right corner. In fact it had to be retaken so he planted it into the same corner, so really he took the first two penalties. It proved to be the winning goal in a 3-2 win. At the end of the season he was promoted to club physio due to his degree background, but mysteriously the players picked up more injuries, which we still can't work out !!!

An ever present in the team for the first three seasons, the usually pacey right back had opponents left behind him with a quick swivel of the hips, but unfortunately he was injured with a serious knee problem in the 1999/2000 season, which robbed us of his talents for a season. (sorry about the pun!) But Pob showed great character to bounce back. He made a successful comeback the year after and carried on from where he left off, recorded his best defensive record of 5 clean sheets in a season. The following season he scored his second goal for the club in a pre-season friendly when he was playing left back. Later on that season he grabbed his third goal, but unfortuntely it was a classic own goal, which would make his hero Gary Mabbutt proud of.

In January 2002 he joined the 100th caps club, beating Digital Line 4-2 on his special day. However after playing 6 full seasons with Esprit with an average of 20 games a season, Rob decided to call it a day and move on. Whilst his contributions will be missed, his very poor taste in jokes defintely wont be.His final record of 134 games picking up 15 clean sheets along the way, which would have been higher bar the earlier years, isnt a bad record. He left us with his pride intact and has been a great credit to this club and we wish him every success with his footballing future.

Player Profile

Even though he was only at the club for 2 seasons, Michael Harrigan proved his weight in gold to the club. Having initially joined the club in the summer of 2003 thanks to an advertisment in the local paper, Michael helped recruit some more players to the club due to his footballing links in the underworld. Not only did he prove to be a good player himself but he will surely go down as the best agent this club has ever had. Hakeem Kuku, Ben Lloyd, Phil Urubusi and Darren Bull were snapped up for mere peanuts thanks to our number one agent. How much tapping up and illegal bungs were conducted remains to be proven but "Set Piece" pulled it off.

His debut for the club was a complete success as he and his "new signings" helped the club to a solid 4-0 victory over Dalton Sports in a pre-season friendly. Setting the standard he chalked up his first clean sheet and repeated the feat on his league debut. He led from the back and helped the younger players come through. During the season Michael earned the name Set Piece for his willing to take corners, free kicks and throw ins. Wisely the manager drew the line when it came to penalities.

After a successful first season, he helped Esprit gain promotion from Division 3 and the following summer helped the club to some silverware by winning the Creative Printers Cup. He played on for another season, establishing the club as a second division side before deciding to hang his boots. At the end of the 2004/05 season, Esprit gave Set Piece a testimonial against our good friends, Sher Force AFC as a way of a thank you and Michael left the club the same way that he had bowled in with, a 4-0 win. He even had a chance to score with the last kick of the game but his shot just whizzed past the upright. Now that would have been some story, but let's be honest who would have believed it if he had scored !!!