Carshalton Athletic wrapped up a productive season by clinching the Bostik South title in style on Saturday.
Knowing that any kind of victory would see them crowned champions, the Robins exceeded that mandate by rattling seven goals past visiting VCD Athletic while closest rivals Lewes could only draw 0-0 with Chipstead.
Promotion sees the end of a four-year stint in the Bostik South and the league title ends a barren 15-year spell inside the club’s trophy cabinet.
Carshalton went into the last game of the season just one point ahead of Lewes, and with a decidedly worse goal difference, so a nervous excitement was palpable around Colston Avenue pre-kick off.
But the players calmed any lingering doubts early on as Ola Sogbanmu fired Carshalton in front after just four minutes.
The Robins kept pouring forward and ended the first-half 4-0 up thanks to a deflected Christie Pattisson cross, a 15th of the season for Tommy Bradford and a stunning 20 yard free-kick by defender Jordan Cheadle.
Now the home fans felt they could relax, but the men in red were far from finished.
Danny Dudley had seen his header crash off the VCD crossbar before Sogbanmu did finally register a fifth goal with his second just after the hour mark.
With goalkeeper Billy Bishop only being asked to make his one save of the entire game with 20 minutes to go, Carshalton comfortably went on to wrap things up in the last 10 minutes.
Pattisson won a spot-kick on 82 minutes and the other players agreed player/manager Peter Adeniyi should take it – he duly stepped up and coolly slotted it beyond the dive of goalkeeper Joe Mant.
The final word went to sub Omar Koroma whom rammed home a Bradford cross from about six yards as Colston Avenue starting rocking.
So Carshalton Athletic finished the season on 102 points and a league title to their name but, once the dust settles, the real work will begin for Adeniyi and his backroom staff as they plan to make a positive return to the Bostik Premier division.
And it was double celebration at Colston Avenue last week as the club’s under 21s also lifted the inaugural Surrey FA County Cup on Tuesday. Goals from Rio Davidson-Phipps, Courtney Swaby, Josh Phillips and Flavien-Howard saw the Robins beat Sutton Common Rovers 4-1 in the final.
