Our look back on what happened in the history of 13th January is bookended by visits to Sutton United, each of which ended with very different outcomes.

On 13th January 1923 Hampstead Town travelled to Gander Green Lane and beat Sutton 4-1 in an Athenian League tie with Travers Day grabbing a hat-trick and Freddie Young also scoring. The scale of that success paled into relative insignificance 11-years later when Hayes visited Claremont Road and returned with an 8-1 drubbing. Freddie Evans and Herbert Knott also joined the hat-trick club whilst Bert Broadis and Jimmy Spalton helped themselves to a goal each.

There were two wartime wins on this day and two more hat-tricks. The first of which was netted by Harry Tomlinson in a 3-1 Middlesex Red Cross win over Tufnell Park in 1940 and 5-years later it was Melvyn Griffiths with three against his name as Finchley were beaten 4-1 in a Herts & Middlesex League Cup tie, the final goal an own goal from a Finchley player.

After the war, West Midlanders Smethwick Highfield were beaten 2-0 in an Amateur Cup tie at Claremont Road in 1951, Dexter Adams and John Westmore scoring the goals and Hendon made it six wins out of six on this day in 1962 as neighbours Harrow Town were beaten 4-2 in the Middlesex Senior Cup as Ken Aldridge and Matt Farrell sharing the goals equally before them.

All good things come to an end, though, and in 1973 Blyth Spartans ended Hendon’s grasp on the Amateur Cup early as they returned to Northumberland by the only goal and two years later Hillingdon Borough won an FA Trophy replay comfortably 3-1, Roy Davies with the Hendon goal.

The following year Finchley were beaten 2-1 in the Middlesex Charity Cup, John Baker scored and future England skipper, albeit at Cricket, Mike Gatting netted the winner – his only first-team goal for the club. In 1979 Witney Town came to Claremont Road, saw Claremont Road and conquered Claremont Road in an FA Trophy tie. George Brooks scored for the Greens but the Oxfordshire side netted twice to seal their progression into the next round.

11-years later saw another FA Trophy exit, this time at the hands of Wivenhoe Town by the same scoreline, Mark Furneaux with the Hendon goal and then in 1996 a Michael Banton goal wasn’t enough as Neil Price’s side went down 3-1 to champions-elect Hayes at Church Road.

Just a year later and the Greens’ interest in the Full Members Cup was ended at Dagenham & Redbridge’s Victoria Road, the Daggers winning on penalties after a 2-2 draw that saw Josh Price and Junior Lewis on target. Another year on and the third match on 13th January in consecutive years saw Enfield progress in the Middlesex Senior Cup comfortably with a 3-0 win.

After that flurry of activity, it was 13-years until we played on 13th January again and on that day, Tiverton Town came to Claremont Road in the FA Trophy and returned to Devon with a well deserved 2-1 win. Former Nigerian international David Adekola had opened the scoring for the Greens but to no avail.

Another visit to Tonbridge Angels in 2007 returned a blank as the Angels beat Gary McCann’s side 3-1, Belal Aite-Ouakrim on target for the Greens and then three years ago today we end up where we began as we travelled to Sutton United in the FA Trophy and were beaten 3-0 ending our interest in the last-32 of the competition.

Of 17 matches, five were FA Trophy defeats (plus another in the FA Amateur Cup) and two each were played against Sutton United and Hayes. Seven matches have been won and 10 lost (one on penalties) and to date 35 goals have been scored and 33 conceded.