Their Stay Was a Brief One (C`s)

The second part of looking at clubs whose tenure in the Southern Football League was brief.

It`s been a mystery to me that Chasetown have played all-bar three of their fifteen seasons since being promoted from Step 5 in the Northern Premier League, given its close proximity to a plethora of Southern League clubs!

Although the club was formed in 1954, it was essentially a youth team called Chase Terrace Old Scholars – hence their current nickname, The Scholars.

The first adult team was formed for the start of the 1958/59 season when they joined the Lichfield & District League, where the club spent three seasons, finishing as runners-up in the league and Challenge Cup.

For the 1961/62 season the club stepped up to the Staffordshire County League before moving to the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One and adopting its current name of Chasetown FC in 1972.

The club spent eleven seasons in the WMRL Division One before gaining promotion to the Premier Division in 1983/84.

Promotion coincided with a move to the current ground, The Scholars Ground, and under manager Bryan Scorey, they took their time to adapt to life in the Premier Division, finishing in the lower reaches of the table in their first three seasons.

Things changed though from 1986. Paul Darby arrived with assistant Mervyn Rowe, who took the helm when Darby joined Wolverhampton Wanderers as a physiotherapist.

Rowe brought about an improvement in the playing squad, with mid-table finishes in the late 1980s followed by a trophy in 1989/90 when Chasetown lifted the League Cup with a 5-2 win over Halesowen Harriers.

This catapulted Chasetown into a successful period during the early 1990s.

The Scholars scooped a League cup and Walsall Senior Cup `double` in 1990/91, with a second Walsall Senior Cup win in 1992/93 at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium.

Rowe stepped down as manager at the start of the 1993/94 season part way through an astonishing run of 36 league games unbeaten – a complete calendar year without defeat.

However, success progressively slid away, and a succession of managers could not recapture any of Rowe’s successes, resulting in three seasons in the bottom three or four of the newly formed Midland Alliance, of which Chasetown was a founder member.

Rowe returned to the helm in 1997/98 and remained as manager for four years, as Chasetown regained mid-table status with the likes of former Wolves striker Shaun Bradbury leading the way in the goalscoring stakes winning two MFA `golden boot` awards in three seasons.

In February 2004, former striker Charlie Blakemore, who had been one of the most prolific marksmen in Midlands non-League football with the likes of Bilston Town, Bridgnorth Town and Willenhall Town, stepped up from being assistant manager.

Blakemore’s first full season in charge, Chasetown lifted the Walsall Senior Cup for the third time, beating Tividale 2-1 at Walsall and finished second to Rushall Olympic in the Midland Alliance.

Season 2005/96 proved to be an amazing one for the Scholars.

The club was thrust into the national spotlight in November 2005 upsetting all the odds by reaching the First Round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history, overcoming famous cup side Blyth Spartans in front of a then-record attendance of 2,134 at The Scholars in the Fourth Qualifying Round.

The BBC screened the game live to a Sunday lunch-time audience of 3.2 million on `Match of the Day` as they broadcast the First Round tie against Oldham Athletic.

In front of 1,997, Chasetown took the lead through Nicky Harrison, only for the Latics to level the scores a few minutes later and send the game into a replay.

Over 2,300 followed Blakemore’s men up to Boundary Park – the highest away following at Oldham all season – but the romance was over as the home side won 4-0.

During that record-breaking season, the Scholars notched a record 8 consecutive victories in the league, went 22 games unbeaten in league and cup, and regularly smashed their record league attendance, ending the season with 839 for the visit of Romulus in the game which clinched Chasetown the league title with a late run to pip Stourbridge, who also went up.

The club were placed in the Southern League Midland Division and coped extremely well and finished a remarkable third, with the likes of Solihull Borough, the side who had pipped them the year before, Rushall Olympic, and Aylesbury United trailing behind.

But Chasetown suffered the heartbreak of losing 1-0 to local rivals Willenhall Town in the play-off semi-finals.

The following season saw Blakemore`s side make more FA Cup history when they beat League One side Port Vale in a Second Round replay to become the lowest ranked side to ever make the Third Round of the world’s most famous domestic cup competition.

Their reward was a home tie against Championship side Cardiff City who boasted the likes of Robbie Fowler, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Trevor Sinclair amongst their squad.

In front of a record-breaking home attendance of 2,420, the Scholars took the lead against Dave Jones’ Bluebirds side via a Kevin McNaughton own goal in the 17th minute.

The class of a team six leagues and some 136 places higher than Chasetown did tell and a first-half injury-time equaliser from former Aston Villa man, the sadly now late Peter Whittingham, enabled Cardiff to go into the break all-square and further goals from a 17-year-old debutant called Aaron Ramsey - later of course of Arsenal and currently Juventus - and Paul Parry finally ended Chasetown’s marathon ten-game cup run.

The cup run affected their league form, however, and they could only finish in seventh spot in their second season in the Southern League.

But 2008/09 saw Chasetown amongst the front runners and a fourth-place finish ensured that they would contest the play-offs.

In the semi-final the Scholars demolished third-placed Atherstone Town at Sheepy Road 5-0 to take their place in the play-off final.

A record crowd of 3,111 at Nuneaton Town’s Liberty Way stadium witnessed a tight, tense game, but a solitary strike from Ben Foster ended the Scholars dream of promotion for another season at least.

That was also to signal the end of their time as a Southern League club as a geographical re-organisation saw them shifted north to become members of the Northern Premier League Division One South.

And at the end of their first campaign in their new surroundings, the Scholars finished runners-up and, after a 3-2 play-off semi-final win over Sheffield FC, a 1-0 win against Glapwell at the Scholars Ground in front of a crowd of 1,265 ensured Chasetown would be playing at the highest level in their history.

They had two seasons in the NPL Premier Division before suffering relegation back to the Division One South where they have remained since.

Chertsey Town had just two seasons as members of the Southern League.

Currently in the Isthmian League South Central Division, the Curfews had a wonderful 2018/19 campaign when they achieved the `double` of Combined Counties League champions and FA Vase winners at Wembley.

Chertsey were formed in 1890 and spent much of their formative years in the Surrey League.

Although Chertsey gained membership of the Surrey Senior League immediately after the Second World War, it was not until the 1959/60 season that success came with the league championship.

This was repeated twice in the next three years, a halcyon period when the League Cup was also won on three occasions.

Due to the static nature of amateur football in those days, the club could not progress to the preferred Corinthian League so, in 1963, it was controversially decided to turn `professional` and enter the Metropolitan League.

However, the cost was too much and a return to the lower levels of the Greater London League for one season occurred before a further shift to the Spartan League was made in 1967.

Indifferent results then dogged the club for almost two decades. This situation was briefly relieved in 1974/75 when the club were league and League Cup runners-up to an up-and-coming Farnborough Town outfit.

Meanwhile, the fabric of the club was being built up behind the scenes and despite lack of prominence on the park, movement was made via the London Spartan (1975/76) and Athenian leagues through to the Isthmian League with a place in Division Two South in 1984.

Instant relegation to the Combined Counties League was suffered but a rejuvenated side won promotion back to Isthmian League within the year, whilst winning the League Cup on the way.

The club finished in relatively healthy league positions but the worst season after returning to the Isthmian League came when the two Division Twos were split in 1991 and a place in the new Division Three had to suffice.

This position was quickly rectified with a runner-up slot the next season.

The Curfews also reached the quarter-finals of the FA Vase, emulating a similar performance in 1987/88.

A year later, 102 points and a runner-up promotion place to Division One was nailed along with the League Cup together with the Carlsberg Trophy in the same campaign along with the League Charity Shield and the Isthmian ‘Team of the Season’ trophy.

Only one campaign – 1994/95 - was required in Division One before further promotion came to the Premier Division – the highest level the club had achieved to date.

The first season at Premier Division level was one of consolidation but the second was more difficult.

A late rally proved insufficient to avoid the drop to Division One.

Two subsequent Division One campaigns saw comfortable but the third proved too difficult after a very poor first half of the season.

Relatively respectable positions were attained for the next two seasons and then a return to Division One, taking a place in the revised south section in the Isthmian re-organisation.

The side was not able to compete at this level and relegation to Division Two was suffered in 2003.

With the dissolution of the division, the club was allocated to Combined Counties League in 2006 and promotionally, hopeful situations were created regularly over the five terms in that competition.

Finishing as runners-up to Guildford City in 2011 was enough to secure promotion but this time to the Southern League Division One Central.

The Curfews at the time were owned and managed by Spencer Day, but he departed for Farnborough later in 2011, where he remains.

They finished 17th in their inaugural season in the Southern League, but Day`s departure along with several of their players, saw them struggle for the next two campaigns.

They finished 20th and then 21st in 2013/14 with only Ashford Town (Middx) below them and having conceded 117 goals – the most in the division, and they were relegated back to the Combined Counties League where four modest seasons prevailed.

A massive change occurred when Chertsey won the Combined Counties League Premier Division in the 2018/19 season with six games to go, after securing their first appearance in the FA Vase Final when the Curfews beat Southern Counties East League side Cray Valley Paper Mills 3-1 after extra-time.

Anderson stepped down after that and former captain Kevin Maclaren has since taken charge.

Like Chertsey, Cheshunt only spent three seasons as members of the Southern League.

FA Amateur Cup semi-finalists under the original club`s banner in 1903/04, they were formed in around 1880, just 17 years after the FA codified the laws of football.

Their main achievements included winning the Herts Senior Cup in 1924 and the Herts Charity Cup in 1900/01, 1903/04 and 1905/06 and joined the Athenian league after the First World War.

After finishing bottom four seasons on the trot and heavily in debt, they disbanded in 1931 when the cricket club raised the rent - at the time they were the oldest amateur club in Hertfordshire.

The ‘new’ Cheshunt Football Club were formed in July 1946 at a public meeting when a group of local businessmen decided to resurrect the club, using local junior side Crossbrook Sports as the basis for the new team, and with Roy Bailey as their manager.

The new club applied for and were accepted into the London League, playing in Division One for the 1946/47 season.

They finished runners-up and won the League Cup and Herts Charity Shield.

Initially, home games were played at the Gothic sports ground, off Theobalds Lane, before moving to College Road the following season.

Cheshunt then won the Division One title in 1947/48 and again in 1948/49 season and reached the Herts Senior Cup final for the first time.

The 1949/50 season saw us in the London League Premier Division and playing at the newly opened Cheshunt Stadium on Theobalds Lane.

The Ambers won the championship – beating Tilbury on the last day of the season to clinch the title from them – and reached the Third Round of the FA Amateur Cup, defeating holders Bromley in front of 5,000 spectators (still the ground record) along the way.

Cheshunt joined the Spartan League for the 1962/63 season and won the title at the first attempt and the following season the team won the Spartan League Cup.

For the 1964/65 season, Cheshunt joined the Athenian League, playing in Division Two and the following season finished runners-up under the management of Terry Medwin, the former Tottenham Hotspur and Wales international.

The Division One title was won in 1967/68, beating Wembley in another head-to-head championship decider and Cheshunt joined the Premier Division in the 1968/69 season and achieved respectable positions right through to winning the Athenian championship in the 1975/76 season, guided by the club’s most successful manager, John Drabwell.

Cheshunt’s time in the Premier Division saw the club’s most successful period since the 1940s.

The team won the Mithras Cup in 1969/70, the London Charity Cup in 1973/74, the Athenian League Cup and East Anglian Cup in 1974/75 and the Athenian League Cup again in 1975/76. They also reached four Herts Senior Cup finals, two Mithras Cup finals as well as another East Anglian Cup and Herts Charity Cup finals.

It was during this period that Cheshunt saw Eddie Sedgwick chalk up the club record for goals – 148 - and John Poole began his run of record appearances - 512.

Cheshunt joined the Isthmian League Division Two in 1977/78 but found little success until the 1981/82 season, when the Ambers finished runners-up to Worthing and were promoted to Division One and also reached the last eight of the FA Vase, going out to Blue Star in the quarter-final - Cheshunt’s best performance in any national competition.

Cheshunt were relegated at the end of 1983/84 season. However, this was the time when a young Iain Dowie first appeared for the Ambers, before leaving to play for Luton Town, West Ham United, Southampton and Northern Ireland and then going on to manage Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Coventry City.

Paul Fairclough, who went on to manager Barnet, Stevenage Borough and England C, also played a few games for the Ambers in the early 80s.

In 1986/87 Cheshunt were relegated into the Spartan League and spent the next six seasons there.

In 1991/92, the club finally finished in a top three place, along with the Spartan League Cup, which was a good enough performance to go back up into the Isthmian League Division Three.

Second spot was achieved in the first campaign, but the club was relegated to Division Three in 1997/98 but bounced back immediately the following season.

Mid-table positions were achieved until being effectively relegated to the new Division Two at the end of the 2001/02 season due to league restructuring and ground improvements not meeting league deadlines.

In season 2002/03, Cheshunt won the Division Two title – the club`s first league title for 27 years - reached three cup finals and also achieved the necessary ground-grading to play at a higher level.

Success continued in the 2003/04 season, finishing third in Division One North.

With the FA restructuring of the non-League Pyramid taking effect for the following season, Cheshunt were promoted to the Isthmian Premier Division for 2004/05 but found themselves relegated on the final day of the season by the narrowest of margins (identical points and goal difference with Wealdstone meant that they stayed above Cheshunt by virtue of having scored two more goals), only to then find the club were saved due to the disbandment of Hornchurch that summer.

However, the Ambers were moved across into the Southern League, where they spent a memorable 2005/06 season finishing two places above the relegation zone and lifting the Herts Charity Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

During this season, Cheshunt signed Lloyd Opara from Redbridge, one of the best players in the Southern League.

There were many rumours speculating about Opara, with tabloids reporting that he was on the verge of being snapped up by Chelsea for a cool £1m. In reality, the club sold him to Peterborough United for an estimated £22,000 and he went on to make 8 appearances in League Two and scored just one goal.

Season 2007/08 in the Southern League saw the club break plenty of records - for all the wrong reasons.

The Ambers went through five managers - Tom Loizou (sacked in November), Paul McGiven (resigned in December), Justin Moseley (caretaker), Martin Grainger (resigned after one game in charge) and finally Gordon Boateng.

Months of turmoil saw most of the senior players leave for pastures greener.

Relegation was all but assured by the time Boateng took charge of the team and the inevitable became a certainty at Easter when a 2-1 defeat at Banbury United sealed their fate, and in the end, they finished 9 points behind second-from-bottom Cirencester Town.

Cheshunt were placed in the Isthmian Division One North for the 2008/09 season, and they remained at that level until they won the Division One South Central play-off final, beating Bracknell Town 3-0, to take their place in the Premier Division.

The history of Chingford Town is a complex one with numerous clubs popping up over the years.

The original club were formed just after the Second World War and they joined the Southern League in 1948.

They were in a league of 22 clubs, which included the likes of Gillingham, who were the champions at the end of the 48/49 season, Colchester United and Hereford United.

`Little` Chingford finished second-from-bottom, sandwiched between Tonbridge and bottom-markers Bedford Town, with 21 points from 42 games.

Season 1949/50 finished with Merthyr Tydfil as champions and both Gillingham and Colchester elected to the Football League.

Again, though, Chingford found themselves a little out of their depth and this time finished bottom of the 24-team table, 9 points adrift of second-from-bottom Kidderminster Harriers and third-from-bottom Bedford.

The team started the 1950/51 campaign and played 18 games, but won only one of them and drew two, conceding 55 goals in the process.

Having played 18 times, Chingford then withdrew from the Southern League and its first team took over the reserve team`s fixtures in the Metropolitan League.

That final season saw Chingford reached the Second Qualifying Round of the FA Cup after beating Ilford and Crittall Athletic before losing to local rivals Woodford Town in a home replay 4-0. It was the furthest the club ever got in the competition in its short history.

This particular version of Chingford Town folded at the end of the 1950/51 season.

Since them, clubs bearing the name have reappeared in the London League, Metropolitan League, London Spartan League, Spartan South Midlands League, where they folded in 1998/99 after just two seasons in the division, the second of which saw them concede an unbelievable 174 goals in 24 games!

The latest version, Chingford Athletic, joined the Essex Olympian League in 2011/12, finishing 9th in Division Three.

Currently competing in the Eastern Counties League (Thurlow Nunn League) under the guise of FC Clacton, Clacton Town spent six seasons in the Southern League in the late 1950s and early 60s.

They were founder members of the Eastern Counties League in 1935 and then founder members of the Essex County League two years later, re-joining the Eastern Counties League in 1938/39.

In 1956/57 Clacton won the East Anglian Cup and reached the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup but lost 3–2 at home to Yiewsley (later Hillingdon Borough).

After finishing fifth in 1957/58 the Seasiders moved up to the South-East Division of the Southern League under Roy Bicknell`s management.

Although they finished second-from-bottom in their first season, the following year they won the newly re-named Division One.

Bicknell will always be fondly remembered by supporters as the man who led Clacton to the Southern Division One glory in 1959/60 - the highest achievement ever recorded by the Seasiders.

In their first season in the Premier Division, they reached the First Round of the FA Cup for the first, and to date only time, but lost 3–1 at home to Southend United.

A 13th-placed finish in their first season at Premier Division level was a decent effort, especially when one considers that below them were the likes of Cheltenham Town, Dartford, Tonbridge, Chelmsford City and Boston United, who finished rock-bottom.

Season 1961/62 saw the Seasiders end up in 18th place, but they were only 2 points above the fourth-placed team, Tonbridge, who were relegated alongside King`s Lynn, Folkestone Town and bottom-markers Cheltenham.

However, after finishing 21st out of 22 clubs in 1962/63, and with a paltry 13 points from just three wins and seven draws from 40 matches, Clacton were relegated back to Division One.

And although they finished a reasonable 14th, registering 19 wins and a draw from their 42 games in 1963/64, the club decided that it would be financially more viable to return to the Eastern Counties League.

They have remained as members of that Step 5 league ever since, suffering a drop into Division One in 1991/92 until winning that division and returning to the Premier Division in 1995.

They went down again in 1997/98 but bounced straight back.

The current Coventry Sporting FC is a junior club based on the west of the City on Westwood Heath Road.

It's a well-run community club with teams up through to under-16 level but is without a senior side at present.

Formed as Coventry Amateurs in 1967, they played in the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One until gaining promotion to the Premier Division in 1972/73.

In 1975/76 Coventry Sporting reached the First Round of the FA Cup after what had already been an adventure in itself.

They had already beaten two higher league opponents having entered the Preliminary Round and overcome Bromsgrove Rovers, Oldbury United, Halesowen Town, Brierley Hill Alliance and Spalding United.

The team was being managed at the time by former Coventry City, Chelsea, Derby County and England international goalkeeper Reg Matthews with future boss Dave Kite as his assistant.

They were paired with Tranmere Rovers, then top of Division Four, at home.

But instead of hosting it at their own Kirby Corner Ground, Sporting moved the game to Coventry City ’s Highfield Road, where Sporting pulled off an incredible giant-killing act to win 2-0 in front of a crowd of 4,565 which provided the club with a huge financial boost.

They were again drawn at home in the Second Round, but lost 4-0 to Peterborough United, again at Highfield Road but had the consolation of an even bigger crowd of 8,556.

After moderate finishes in the WMRL – the best being sixth in 1980/81, news that the Southern League wanted to expand its divisions saw Sporting surprisingly allowed in, despite only finishing 16th out of 20 clubs in the WMRL in 1983/84.

Sporting`s first season as a Southern League club saw them finish 15th, ahead of the likes of Banbury United and Tamworth, who were bottom.

An 11th-placed finish in 84/85 was followed by a drop to 18th in 1985/86.

But an excellent 86/87 campaign saw Sporting finish eighth with Dave Kite now chairman of the club and Trevor Smith holding the managerial helm.

However, successive 20th-placed finishes saw Coventry Sporting folded at the of the 1988/89 season after Ansell's Brewery put the ground up for sale.

And the city was without a non-League side for four years until Alvis became the first side to approach entry to the Midland Combination League.