OUR HISTORY

2024 - 2025

  • PRE-SEASON 2024

    AN UPHILL START

    A new year, and a new beginning. The 2024/25 season began with a new kit, a clubhouse, and a very tough pre-season against a blend of Division 2, 3 and 4 opponents.

    The Salads, however, played valiantly, winning three games and losing four. Given the quality of the opposition faced this was a roaring success, and now we cannot wait for the proper games to begin.

  • SEPTEMBER 2024

    THE SALAD BOWL

    Who would have thought it? GPR Home played GPR Away, highlighting the depth of our squad and availability of the players.

    It was a great game, and a great day for the lads to get some final minutes on the pitch before the start of the season. It was GPR Away who came home with the victory this time, although next time GPR Home will be looking to snatch back the crown of Caesar Salad.

2023 - 2024

  • AUGUST 2023

    A PROPER PRE-SEASON

    With our two wins from the season before and having gone three unbeaten in pre-season, spirits were high. More new faces got involved and we finally had an organised committee - the Backroom - to lead GPR on and off the pitch. Things were looking good, and there was a feeling that a corner had been turned.

    Whipping boys no more.

  • AUTUMN 2023

    MIXED FORTUNES

    Our second season started with positives and negatives both. After an initial 4-1 loss, we picked up our game and won two games on the spin in fine fashion. Just three games in and we were close to beating last year's tally already.

    Then our winter run-in got tough. The lads went on a run of five without a win against some tricky opposition and injuries plagued The Salads yet again. It was a frustrating time, with good performances not being reflected in the scoreline. Yet again, we were knocked out of the cups, which is always a disappointment.

  • DECEMBER - FEBRUARY 23/24

    A STRONG RUN

    After a difficult period, the boys got their act together and started stringing together a good run of results. After a few crucial wins in the league, we had gone from mid-table hopes to promotion candidates. There was still the question of the two juggernauts of the league, however, as we had not played them, and got our first battering of the year against Atlantis to throw a spanner into the works.

    Off the pitch, things were gaining momentum. We were a much more cohesive unit, with consistency in numbers improving and a better overall spirit around the club. The mood going into games had shifted from hopeful to expectant. It was also around this time that the backroom decided to start planning for the next season, and the search for sponsors and potential changes to kit began.

  • MARCH - MAY 2024

    A STRONG FINISH

    Spring had sprung and so did the Salads spring into life with a fantastic final third to the season. The remaining seven games were incredibly tough on paper and although we only gained 12 points (including one forfeit), it was enough to see us climb to third in the table and finish the season as "best of the rest". The two league heavyweights, Sandgate and Atlantis, tousled at the top of the pyramid, while we slowly climbed into a playoff position.

    Although we couldn't win our last game against eventual champions Sandgate, we ran them as close as we could, having gone 2-0 up, and even though we walked off the pitch in disappointment, we agreed that things had never been so good. Moving off the obvious shortcomings of the year, there had never been a time to be a Salad.

2022 - 2023

  • SUMMER 2022

    THE FOUNDING OF GPR

    Originally Baboon Lagoon, a 5-a-side team in Chiswick, West London, the boys decided over a few jars to really have a go at making a proper 11s team.. Having settled on our new identity (and deciding against being called Tyson Mercan's Barmy Army FC), we moved to the Middlesex League, and began the season with high hopes come September.

    The race was on to organise the team. Although we had a committed group, we knew we'd need many more. In the months that followed, we begged our mates to join, spoke to the people we knew and asked those people to contact anyone they knew. What we realised, quickly, is that this would not be easy.

    Of the founding fathers, very few had played 11s before. We knew that there was going to be a bit of a culture shock, but the rush to get our act together got us all by surprise, and before we knew it the season was just round the corner.

  • SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2022

    A ROCKY START

    Pre-season started off harder than anticipated. When we began planning the team, we naively believed we could make do with a small squad and good chat. However, we crucially forgot that in adult 11s, you don’t heal as quickly as when you were 12, and your mum doesn’t drive half the squad to games anymore. A number of key injuries didn't help as several of our starting squad - real and imagined - forced us to review the squad. At its peak, the team swelled to around 65 people, and yet we were struggling to get a bare 11 every week. 

    The Rangers were quickly eliminated from all trophies in the first month, losing to a string of impressive teams. A strange statistic that emerged in the first gruelling months is that for a team that lost every game, only twice in our first 13 games were we behind by more than a goal at half-time. Indeed, for most of our season, we had been level or ahead, meaning that fitness was lacking heavily.

    We also underestimated the quality of football in the league. Most of the team have little-to-none 11s experience, while those that did were shocked to witness the rise of tiki-taka and gegenpressing in the lower leagues. No more long balls and fist-fights, the teams we faced were there to play.

  • SPRING 2023

    THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

    2023 began, and still no win. With little more than a point to our name, morale was low. January brought in a flurry of new recruits, however, and they established themselves quickly. Among them was the captain for the 2023/24 season, Julian, whose leadership qualities shone through.

    Results started changing, and the performances slowly improved - not that they could get much worse. Chemistry on the pitch grew. Pete and Rory had the chance to build their rapport up front, with the latter scoring a glut of goals while the former mostly tried to distract the opposing defence from the real threat. The defence rotated heavily, but Greg marshalled the boys well, especially those that had to take the short straw and play where they weren’t comfortable. Yannick spent all season holding the line in defensive midfield, where others have been ruled out due to injury.

    The first elusive win was coming.

  • MAY 2023

    IT HAPPENED

    Finally, mercifully, May brought us our very first win! We were rock bottom of the league by this point, but we didn’t care. The feeling alone is victory enough and ranks among the best feelings I’ve had as a player for 15 years. Better yet, we followed up with another excellent performance to finish the season on successive wins, something unthinkable just weeks beforehand.

    Needless to say, the celebration equalled the achievement.