Where Are They Now? (Part Three)

A look at where former Southern Football League clubs are currently.

Stourport Swifts were members of the Southern League from 2001 until 2012.

It was 1882 when the first recorded club was established in the town, the members meeting for practice in a field near the Station Hotel.

The name of 'Swifts' was given to the team by the promoters, the colours being dark blue jerseys with a white swift on the chest and white knickerbockers.

After practicing for a considerable time near the Station Hotel, the club moved to Bewdley Road near the New Inn, where the first matches were played.

The Swifts changed their ground several times, before in 1906 moving to Olive Grove.

The 1912/13 season saw the team capture their first honours, winning both the Worcester and Bromsgrove Charity Cups.

Just before the outbreak of the First World War, the Swifts reached their first County Cup final, but were beaten 3-1 by the then powerful Badsey Rangers.

After the war the Swifts came back with a vengeance and between 1925 and 1927 produced a historic hat-trick of County Cup wins.

Twenty years passed before the Swifts lifted the trophy again, and another 35 years until 1982 when they reached the final again, but lost 2-0 to Metal Box.

During this time Swifts moved to their present ground at the Walshes Meadow.

The 1970/71 season saw the return of Stourport Swifts to the First Division of the Worcester League after an absence of many years.

In 1979, after eight seasons in the Worcester League, the Swifts were elected to Division Two of the West Midlands (Regional) League.

After consolidating their position for half a dozen seasons, they gained promotion to Division One in 1986, after finishing fourth in the league.

The Swifts first year in Division One saw them finishing last but one, just avoiding relegation, but the following campaign saw them finish runners-up to Rocester and earn promotion to the Premier Division.

After a struggle in the initial season, the Swifts gradually improved each year, and in the 1991/92 season they finished third after heading the division for most of the season.

Following this in 1992/93, they won the Premier Division Cup and the Worcester Senior Urn.

The 1993/94 season was another successful one which saw the club finish runners-up in the Premier Division and pull off another cup `double`, again winning the Worcester Senior Urn as well as the Worcester Infirmary Cup, beating Bromsgrove Rovers on both occasions.

Despite finishing runners-up in the Premier Division, they failed to be elected to the newly-formed Midland Alliance.

In 1994/95 Swifts finished in third place and successfully defended the Worcester Senior Urn for the third year running and the Worcester Infirmary Cup for the second year running.

Season 199/-96 saw Stourport finish in fifth place in the league and retain the Worcester Infirmary Cup.

In 1996/97 they again finished runners-up in the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division but a year later after finishing runners-up for the third time, they were promoted to the Midland Alliance and also added the Worcester Senior Urn and Worcester Infirmary Cup.

In 2001, with Rod Brown in charge, the Swifts took and incredible 34 points from their last 12 matches of the season to pip Rushall Olympic to the Midland Alliance title by one goal!

This won the Swifts promotion to their highest ever level in the Southern League.

Their best ever finish in Division One West, Division One Midland and Division One South West was eighth in their first campaign and then finished 17th, 18th, 14th, 20th, 22nd, 17th, 16th, 17th, 17th and then 21st over the following eleven years.

They were relegated back to the Midland Alliance in 2012 and then the non-League Pyramid was re-organised in 2014 and the Swifts secured a place in the Midland League Premier Division, which significantly reduced travelling on match days.

A year later, Hereford, after being declared bankrupt for the second time, were denied entrance into the Southern League, and placed in the Midland Premier Division.

On the 11th August 2015, a record crowd of 1,321 saw the Swifts win 2-0 at Walshes Meadow to become the first team to beat their illustrious neighbours in the Midland League.

Chris Reynolds passed away on Saturday 23rd July 2016, after a brave battle against cancer.

Reynolds had been with the club some 45 years as player, manager, committee member and chairman, and he will be sorely missed by all the great friends he made in that time.

The club then lost John McDonald on 17th October the same year, also after a long battle against cancer.

McDonald was honoured by the Football Association in 2015 for 50 years of service to Stourport Swifts, and had been the heartbeat of the Swifts for the past 50 years.

He will be remembered as the man who built the club, and this is a pair of shoes that will never be filled.

The clubhouse was extended in 2020 to double its size, with a new bar area and toilets, and the Swifts were successful in securing grant aid from the Football Foundation to replace the old perimeter fence, and today's new dug-outs.

The current team beat Southern Premier Division Central side Redditch United 2-0 in the final of the Worcestershire Senior Cup at the Victoria Ground on Tuesday night.

After a goalless opening period, Swifts took a 51st minute lead through Jordan Annear.

And on 65 minutes, Ben Tilbury made it 2-0 to secure Swifts` first ever Senior Cup triumph.

They are managed by ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers, Hereford United, Stourbridge and Bromsgrove Rovers defender Quentin Townsend, who was appointed in May 2018, having previously gained experience as an academy scout for Birmingham City and had managerial experience with Southam United and Pershore Town.

They are currently seventh in the table, with well-travelled former Leamington, Stourbridge, AFC Telford United and Stafford Rangers attacker Lee Chilton leading the goalscoring charts with 18.

Bilston Town played in the Southern League between 1985 and 2002.

The club was founded in 1894, when Bilston Wanderers and Bilston Rovers amalgamated to form Bilston United, and played their home games at Prouds Lane playing fields, using the Spread Eagle pub as their changing rooms!

In 1908 Bilston United became a Limited Company, with many of the Directors being local businessmen.

In 1921 the club moved to its present 'home' at Queen Street, the first ever game there being against Tamworth Castle.

Six years later the club went bankrupt, with the ground being sold to the local education committee, with the proviso that as long as there was a Town team, they would be allowed to use Queen Street. The ground is now owned by Wolverhampton Council, though that proviso still applies.

Less than a year later the club was re-formed as Bilston FC and returned to Queen Street, playing in the Walsall Senior League.

In 1931 the club changed its name to Bilston Borough, but in 1949, after the end of the Second World War, reverted back to the name of Bilston FC, and entered into a rich period of success, winning the Walsall League and Senior Cup twice, the Walsall Challenge Cup and the Express & Star Cup.

The club then entered the Birmingham League, winning both League and Cup in 1960/61, with striker Ron McDermott scoring 78 goals that season.

That early 1960s side enjoyed one of the most successful periods in the club’s history, winning the Staffs Senior Cup in 1959/60, 1960/61 and 1961/62, they also picked up the Walsall Senior Cup in 1961/62, 1962/63 and 1963/64.

In 1968 Bilston reached the First Round of the FA Cup, losing 3-1 at home, to Halifax Town, with 4,300 packed inside Queen Street.

In 1972/73 Bilston won the West Midlands League and cup 'double', and also reached the Second Round of the FA Cup, losing 1-0 at home to Barnet after holding them 1-1 at Underhill.

The next 'high' period came in the early 1980s, when the club won the Wednesbury Charity Cup four times in five seasons.

In 1983 they changed their name to Bilston Town and in 1985 gained promotion to the Southern League Midland Division.

In 2001 the club missed out on promotion to the Conference South by a single solitary point to Tiverton Town, and following that disappointment entered into a downward spiral of fortunes that eventually saw them go out of business in 2005, then due to a mixture of debt and vandalism at their ground the club was unable to complete the 2005 season and in theory ceased to exist.

The club was re-formed in 2007 and entered into the West Midlands (Regional) League Division Two, playing their 'home' games at Bantock Park while Queen Street was refurbished and brought back up to standard.

The team returned to their 'spiritual home' in 2008/09 having won promotion to Division One.

In 2012/13 the club won promotion back to the Premier Division and in October 2013 Danny Mason and Lee Onions were installed as joint player-managers, and safely negotiated Premier Division retention.

In November 2013 the current Directors obtained the club’s lease from Wolverhampton Council, changing the 'trading name' to Bilston Town Community Club and in January 2014 obtained charitable status.

The club formed a youth team in season 2013/14 competing in the Midland Floodlit League with the intention of progressing young players into the senior side, thus safeguarding its future still further.

Season 2014/15, despite a great start to the season Mason and Onions resigned early in the New Year following a poor run of results.

Leon Pugh and Scott Hamilton took over the reins until the end of the season with a mid-table finish the final outcome.

In the summer of 2015 the club appointed Jon Purdie as the new manager with Josh Skidmore and Mark Davies making up the back room team.

Purdie and Skidmore both resigned their positions in March 2016 and youth team boss Scott Hamilton took over, managing both the first and youth team duties until the end of the season.

The club just escaped relegation after a torrid end of season run with a number of first team players refusing to turn up for the club and it was left to the youth team to step in and ensure the fixtures were completed.

Hamilton was appointed first-team manager immediately after the final game of the 2015/16 season and, along with assistant manager Karl Frankham, they assembled a young squad with a desire to play for the club and finished the 2016/17 season in 15th place, a marked improvement on the previous season with the highlight being a 3-1 win over Port Vale’s academy side in the Staffordshire Senior Cup.

During the summer of 2017, the club received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the equivalent of an MBE for voluntary organisations, and are rightly proud of all those who work behind the scenes to keep the club and its community work at the forefront.

The 2017/18 season was a tough one for the football club with the sudden passing of both chairman Graham Hodson and secretary Paul Lloyd which overshadowed the efforts on the field for a large part of the season.

Despite this the club finished in its highest league position since returning to the Premier Division in 2013/14, ending the season in 11th place while also going on to win the Smedley Crooke Memorial Challenge Cup with a 3-2 win over Barnt Green Spartak in the final at Bewdley Town.

Season 2018/19 saw the club kick-off with seven straight defeats to fall adrift at the bottom of the table but by January they had edged up into mid table following a marked improvement in performances and results.

The club eventually finished in 13th place which looked a long way off in mid-September.

The 2019/20 season was one of upheaval as it began with Scott Hamilton in charge but due to personal and work commitments he had to resign and his assistant Noel Cotterill took over. However, Cotterill’s reign was short and, in October, Wayne Spicer replaced him in the manager’s seat with former coach Hayden Foote returning to Queen Street as part of the backroom team.

The Covid pandemic shortened season began a period of change as Wayne Spicer took the opportunity to manage Step 3 side Redditch United and Dean Gill move across from Wolverhampton Casuals after applying for the vacant position.

A promising start was made to the 2020/21 season. However, the second curtailed season in a row led to the departure of Gill and the majority of the squad to pastures new at Darlaston Town with Wayne Spicer, who had left Redditch for personal reasons earlier in the season, returning to the Bilston dug-out with Hayden Foote and Max Black on the coaching staff along with Tom Read as keeper coach and Adam Paget as physio.

The club kicked off the 2021/22 season in the Midland League Division One following the non-League re-structure and also entered a reserve team in the Birmingham & District League to help with the transition from youth to adult football in connection with its partnership with the Sturridge Football Academy.

Despite spending most of the season in the top half of the table the club missed out on the play-offs after finishing their first Midland League season in seventh place.

Manager Wayne Spicer moved into a head of football operations role at the club midway through the season with assistant Hayden Foote taking over the manager's role.

At the end of the season Foote resigned due to personal commitments with Mike Dunn appointed the new manager in May 2022, assisted by Ryan Westley and Aaron McFarlane-Archer.

This season sees Bilston likely to finish in sixth place.

Following the demise of the original Baldock Town in 2001 the new Baldock Town were formed from the Baldock Town youth FC as an outlet for youth squads in 2003.

The original club were founded in 1905 as Baldock Football Club and joined the Northern Division of the Herts County League for the 1905/06 season.

They won the division in 1920/21 and finished as runners-up in the championship play-off.

In 1921 they were re-named Baldock Town, and league re-organisation saw them placed in the Herts North Eastern Division.

The league was reduced to a single division in 1923, and the 1924/25 season saw the club finish as runners-up.

However, the league was disbanded at the end of the season, and the club joined Division One of the Bedfordshire & District County League (later re-named the South Midlands League), with the reserves playing in Division Two.

They won the league in 1927/28, and although they finished bottom of Division One in 1929/30, they avoided being relegated to Division Two.

They remained in Division One until the Second World War.

After the war Baldock re-joined the Herts County League, finishing bottom of Division One in 1946/47.

They then switched back to the South Midlands League, winning Division Two in 1947/48 and earning promotion to Division One.

The club won Division One in 1949/50 and were promoted to the Premier Division.

After finishing as runners-up in 1953/54, they left the league, switching to the Parthenon League.

They remained in the league for five seasons, before joining the Senior Division of the London League, finishing bottom of the division in 1959/60.

However, after four seasons they re-joined the Premier Division of the South Midlands League and subsequently won the league in 1965/66, 1967/68 and 1969/70.

In 1983 Baldock switched to the Premier Division of the United Counties League, finishing as runners-up in their first season.

After finishing as runners-up again in 1986/87, they were promoted to the Southern Division of the Southern League.

They remained in the division until the end of the 1994/95 season, which saw them finish as runners-up, earning promotion to the Premier Division.

However, they were relegated back to the Southern Division at the end of the 1996/97 season.

In 1999 the club was transferred to the Eastern Division when the league was restructured but after the 2000/01 season they left the league and folded.

The `new` Baldock Town played its first competitive match in September 2003 in the North Herts League at ‘The Shed’ on Clothall Road, Baldock.

The match was against Magnum with a Rob Foster hat-trick sealing a 5-1 win.

The club then progressed from the North Herts League to the Herts Senior County League.

The first team won Division One of the Herts Senior County League in their debut season in 2007/08.

For three seasons from 2008 the team played its home matches on at the County Ground, Letchworth but they returned to Baldock to play at their old ground in Norton Road, now known as the North Herts Arena.

After three near misses the first team finally won the Herts Senior County Premier Division title in 2012.

Unfortunately, due to ground grading issues, the team were unable to take their place in the Spartan Southern Midlands League.

In order to achieve its ambition of playing at the highest possible level the team were forced to move to ground share with Hitchin Town.

The club finished in second place the following season but this proved to be good enough to secure that elusive promotion to the Spartan South Midlands League.

The side, managed by former player Scott Grant, also won the Herts Senior Centenary Trophy for the first time and retained the Anagram Records Trophy.

The next two seasons saw a period of consolidation for the team as they finished 7th and 10th, respectively, in SSML Division One (Step 6 on the non-League pyramid).

After three seasons at Hitchin the club moved to share with Stotfold.

Luke Gregson then took over in 2015, following Grant’s resignation, and assisted by Dean Gilbert the team then went on a superb run and ended up just missing out on promotion - the third place finish was the highest placing in their recent history.

The 2017/18 season proved to be momentous as Baldock Town continued to progress and finished second in Division One and were duly promoted to the SSML Premier Division.

The team continued with its run of excellent form and finished in fifth place in their first season in the SSML Premier Division.

The following season Baldock managed to get to 12th position before the season was prematurely ended as Covid 19 started to take hold.

Gregson decided to step down at the end of that season and Adam Fisher took over as manager, assisted by Rob Bates.

Baldock only managed 12 games in the 2020/21 season as Covid-19 pandemic eventually won and the league was abandoned.

Rob Bates took over as manager during the summer of 2021 and started the season with some great cup performances but failed to turn that into league form.

Bates resigned and Dave McAdam is currently in charge and the team currently groundshare with Arlesey Town.

Baldock will finish this season in 16th place.