Whatever Happened to….Andover

The rise and fall of the Lions.

Andover Football Club was formed in 1883 by the local Grammar School Headmaster, the Rev.J.C.Witton and played several of their early fixtures under Rugby Union rules!

During the next 30 years the club won the Salisbury League seven times, the North Hants May League five times and reached the Hampshire Junior Cup final twice.

The era between 1919 and 1945 brought two Hampshire League championships and three Russell Cotes Cup wins.

After the Second World War, Andover carried on playing in the Hampshire League, winning the championship in 1949, 1951 and 1962, the Hampshire Senior Cup 1949,1951 and 1956, the Russell Cotes Cup in 1953, 1959, 1961, 1962 and the Pickford Cup in 1951.

After winning the Hampshire League in 1962, the club moved up into the Western League, reaching the FA Cup First Round.

The run began against Isle of Wight side Cowes in the First Qualifying Round and then two local derby wins against Basingstoke Town and Alton Town followed before a Fourth Qualifying Round replay win against Isthmian Leaguers Hendon set them up for a First Round tie against Gillingham from the old Fourth Division, losing 1-0 at the Walled Meadow.

Andover won the Hampshire Senior Cup in 1965 and finished in the runners-up spot in the Western League in 1969/70 and 1970/71.

Andover were promoted into Southern League in 1971 and during the next twenty-one-years struggled to compete, their best seasons being 1987/88 and 1991/92.

In 1989 the club moved to a new £850,000 stadium at The Portway, and in the 1999/92 season had a new owner.

The club gave notice to withdraw from the Southern League and apply to re-join the Wessex League for the 1993/94 season.

The Lions reach their eighth Hampshire Senior Cup final in the 1999/00 season, losing to Aldershot Town.

The golden spell of 1951 was repeated in 2000/01 and 2001/02 with a hat-trick of trophies in each season, claiming the Wessex League championship twice, Hampshire Senior Cup, Russell Cotes Cup, Wessex League Cup and the North Hants Senior Cup.

It was during this time, under Ken Cunningham-Brown`s management, that the Lions possessed a prolific strike force of Andy Forbes and Vinnie Risher, who scored 78 goals between them in the 2001/02 title-winning season.

After a summer of turmoil and change of ownership the season 2002/03 with a young team saw Andover do well, by finishing seventh in the league and winning the North Hants Senior Cup.

During the summer of 2003, the club was close going out of existence, and twelve supporters of the club, who are professional people joined ranks and secured the future of this historic club.

The 2003/04 season brought success in the FA Vase competition, reaching the quarter-finals for the first time in the club`s history and they finished sixth in the league and won the North Hants Senior Cup for the fifth time.

The 2004/05 season saw an improvement in the league, finishing fifth and winning the North Hants Senior Cup for the sixth time.

Under the 2006 non-League Pyramid re-organisation, a third-place finish in the Wessex League was good enough for the Lions to win promotion back to the Southern League, along with local rivals Winchester City and Thatcham Town.

In their first season back, they finished in ninth place, just 5 points from the play-offs.

They were unable to build on this and struggled to a 19th-place finish in the following season, ultimately finishing 29 points above relegation after Slough Town were reprieved following Halifax Town's expulsion from the Conference.

The 2008/09 season saw the Lions marking their 125th anniversary with their best run in the FA Trophy to date, eventually losing 0–3 at home to Newport County in the Third Qualifying Round after wins over Didcot Town, Gosport Borough and Merthyr Tydfil.

The 2009/10 campaign saw the club finish 19th for a third successive time and with early exits from the FA Cup and Trophy, it was a disappointing time.

The start of the 2010/11 season was disrupted due to damage caused to the Portway Stadium pitch by rabbits, leading to a number of home league games being postponed.

An FA Cup match against Chertsey Town was played at Whitchurch United's Longmeadow Ground and their FA Trophy match against Bideford AFC was played at Winchester City's Denplan City Ground.

The Lions were unable to recover and struggled throughout the season, failing to win a single home game and finishing bottom of the division with a paltry 11 points after conceding more than 100 goals.

However, the club avoided relegation due to the resignation of Almondsbury Town earlier in the season.

But, on Monday 25th July 2011, after 128 years in the town, the club was dissolved after what the Board described as ‘continuing financial constraints.

After much deliberation, the decision was made as it was agreed that the cost of staging Southern League football was no longer viable. Therefore, resignations have been tendered to the Southern League, the Wyvern League and also to the FA and Hampshire FA.

A new club named Andover Lions FC was formed two weeks later and after gaining clearance from the FA and the Hampshire FA, the club were accepted into the Hampshire League 2004 (where the original club's reserve side had been playing) in time for the start of the 2011/12 season, with home games played at the Charlton Sports Centre.

The Lions progressed on the Hampshire Premier League but withdrew and folded midway through the 2016/17 season.

The Andover Town club currently members of the Wessex League Division One, has no association with the `old` club, despite them taking over the Portway Stadium following a vote at Test Valley Borough Council in July 2013.

Amongst the managers to have held the Andover post during its Southern League days is former Reading wing half Maurice Evans, who, after briefly taking over as Andover's player-manager in 1967, went on to lead Reading to the Fourth Division championship, and Oxford United to Milk Cup victory.

Another is Italian former Charlton Athletic winger Luciano Masiello.

He played in Italy for six seasons making 179 appearances for Almas Roma, Frosinone Calcio SS Lazio and SS Francavilla.

He also coached for several years in Italy before returning to England and had spells as player-manager at Andover in 1981 and was later player-coach at Woking and Bromley.

Earlier, former Aldershot goalkeeping favourite Tony Godfrey had been in charge after being at Basingstoke Town in a player-coach role until 1979.

He went on to manage Alton Town and Fleet Town.

Mike Burford joined Andover in 1969 and played for the town side for 14 years but his love affair with the Lions continued for a number of years, managing the side in 1982 before returning to form a winning partnership with Ken Cunningham-Brown in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Ricky Haysom was player-manager around 1988. He was previously with Southampton, Cowes, Newport (IoW), Salisbury City as well as Andover.

He was later appointed as Geoff Butler`s assistant at Salisbury and was still making the occasional appearance in the 1990s, finishing his career on 298 games, with 17 goals.

The pair moved to Weymouth in 2002 but were sacked at the end of the 2002/03 season, despite helping the Terras avoid relegation into the Southern League Eastern Division.

He later teamed up with Butler again briefly at Bashley and briefly returned to help Nicky Holmes at Salisbury.

John Waugh, the former Waterlooville boss, had two spells in charge of the Lions, whilst ex-Aldershot, Salisbury City, Basingstoke Town and Fareham Town defender Barry Andrews had a spell as player-manager in 1989/90.

Adie Burford, who played under Andrews at Andover, had three years in charge from 2004 until May 2007.

And Nigel Wiscombe followed Burford. His career in football began on the books at Reading where he played in the Combination before joining the Army Physical Training Corp and the Combined Services squad in 1987 and was the Army number one and Combined Services goalkeeper for 11 years.

His civilian clubs include Hungerford Town, Camberley Town, Beaconsfield SYCOB, Basingstoke Town, Windsor & Eton and Bognor Regis Town as well as a couple of games for Andover.

Brian le Boutillier succeeded Wiscombe but was sacked in November 2004 after an FA Vase defeat to Fareham Town.

He later managed BAT Sports and Christchurch in the Wessex League and in May 2007 was announced as the joint manager of Eastleigh`s reserve side with fellow former Andover boss Adie Burford.

Howard Goddard took charge in June 2002. The former Whitchurch United and Broughton manager was appointed after the takeover of the club from previous owner/manager Ken Cunningham-Brown.

There have also been some distinguished players wearing the red and black, including Colin Barrett, who had the misfortune of being injured and missing out on the first of Nottingham Forest`s European Cup triumphs, having played a major role in Brian Clough`s side getting to the final against Malmo.

He had joined Forest in 1976 from Manchester City, where he had made 53 appearances after coming through the ranks at Maine Road.

He played 69 times for Forest before his injury caused him to miss a large part of the next year.

He left the City Ground having won a First Division championship medal, two League Cup medals and Anglo-Scottish Cup and Charity Shield medals.

He had a short, five-game comeback with Swindon Town but left in May 1981 and joined Southern League Andover.

Three ex-Southampton players also had spells with the Lions.

Nick Banger played for Andover in their Wessex League championship-winning team of 2002.

He made 55 appearances for the Saints as well as 64 for Oldham Athletic, 63 for Oxford United, 10 for Plymouth Argyle and 10 for Dundee in the Scottish First Division.

As well as Andover, the forward also turned out for the likes of Merthyr Tydfil, Woking, Eastleigh, AFC Newbury, Brockenhurst and Lymington & New Milton – the last four clubs as player-coach.

Two of Southampton`s 1976 FA Cup winning team, Mel Blyth and David Peach also wore the Lions colours.

Blyth was a centre-back who played over 350 times as a professional for Scunthorpe United, Crystal Palace and Southampton.

After a spell in South Africa with Cape Town City, Blyth returned to play in the Southern League for Margate briefly before making a surprise return to the League with Millwall, making 75 appearances between 1978 and 1981.

He played in the North American Soccer League for Houston Hurricane and then back in South Africa for Bulova before having his short spell with Southern League Andover during the early part of the 1982/83 season.

He retired after that, although he later coached at Crystal Palace`s academy.

David Peach played for Andover a year later than his former Saints team-mate.

The full-back, who also played in Southampton`s League Cup Final defeat of 1979, scoring the first goal, started out at Gillingham, where he made over 200 appearances before being signed by Lawrie McMenemy for £50,000 in January 1974.

He played over 250 times for the Saints, scoring 34 goals – in 1979, he became the highest-scoring full-back in the history of the Football League when he scored a penalty against Manchester United. He also won 8 England under-23 caps.

He became Swindon Town`s record signing when he moved to the County Ground for £150,000 in March 1980 and he made 53 appearances for them, plus a further 47 for Leyton Orient before signing for Andover.

After leaving the Lions in 1984, he had spells as player-manager of Hampshire League side Wellworthy United and then Lymington Town.

Peter Pollard may not have hit the heights of some of his former team-mates, but he has the honour of being the club`s longest-serving player.

A fine clubman, the midfielder graduated from Andover`s youth side and was voted as player of the year on more than one occasion.

He suffered a broken jaw in 1980/81 but continued to play after recovering.

Forward Alan Green had two spells with the Lions but perhaps will be best remembered for his time with Salisbury.

Green joined Bournemouth as a young professional at the age of 17 under Freddie Cox in 1968.

John Bond then succeeded Cox as manager two years later and Green mainly in the reserve team and although was scoring freely, couldn't get a look into the first-team with Ted McDougal and Phil Boyer playing up front.

In 1972 he moved to Mansfield Town and earned a place in the side for the opening fixture against Northampton Town in August 1972.

However, just before half-time he collapsed with a heart attack.

He spent almost a month in hospital and although Mansfield honoured his contract for that year, his full-time football career was over at the age of 22.

Bournemouth helped him out by staging a testimonial match against a Leicester City side containing the likes of Peter Shilton, Frank Worthington and Alan Birchenall.

Green got a job as an insurance agent and was encouraged to take up sport again by his doctor.

He returned to Salisbury in the Southern League in 1974, initially on a month-to-month deal to see how it went and then moved to Andover after just a handful of games for the Whites.

He went on to have two seasons with Andover as player-manager, scoring 41 goals in 85 games and took them for a period to the top spot in the Southern League.

Then, in 1979, he returned to Salisbury and played for four more seasons, scoring 136 goals in 270 games, and was voted as one of the top 30 all-time best players for the first 60 years.

Former Aldershot favourite Jack Howarth, and two players who started their careers with the Lions, Nigel Spackman and James Sharp, are three others to have worn the club`s colours.

Midfielder Spackman came through Andover`s own ranks before going on to play over 500 League games for Bournemouth, Chelsea, Liverpool, Queens Park Rangers, Glasgow Rangers and Sheffield United and later manage the latter along with Barnsley and Millwall.

Defender Sharp also started out in the Lions` youth set-up before going on to play around 170 times for the likes of Hartlepool United, Falkirk, Torquay United, Rochdale and Airdrie.