They've Played for Your Club… Leiston

Continuing the series on players who have represented the current clubs in the Southern Football League.

Non-League football is littered with clubs who have made rapid rises through the Pyramid – many found progression a little too rapid and fell by the wayside as a consequence of not being able to maintain the same standards off the field as on it.

And although Leiston were originally affiliated with the Suffolk County FA in 1880 and closely associated with the Richard Garrett Engineering Works, it`s only been the last ten years that the club has really come to the fore.

In the early years, the club were members of the North Suffolk League and then Ipswich & District League, winning the latter three times in 1900, 1901 and 1902.

They then had two spells in the East Anglian League sandwiched between spells in the Ipswich & District League.

After the First World War, the club was re-formed as Leiston Works Athletic and during the 1920s were part of three leagues – Essex & Suffolk Border League, Ipswich & District League and North Suffolk League.

In 1934 the club returned to be called Leiston Town, spending fourteen years in the Ipswich & District League before returning to the North Suffolk League for the third time but yet again returning to the Ipswich & District League five years later in 1953 where they stayed for the next 48 years.

During the Second World War the King’s Regiment, which included most of the players of Liverpool, were stationed at Leiston and they played some of their matches at the LWAA ground.

In 1980 the club celebrated its centenary, but this decade saw some indifferent form in the Suffolk & Ipswich League, including relegation to Division One in 1983 and a third-place finish in the Senior Division in 1986.

Further relegations and promotions followed into the 1990s before the club achieved their long-term goal of progression to the Eastern Counties League set up in 2001, finishing third and the necessary promotion placing.

Season 2008/09 will be long remembered in the history of Leiston as they became only one of three sides to ever reach the First Round of the FA Cup after starting the competition at the Extra Preliminary Round stage.

Memorable wins at higher-ranked Carshalton Athletic and then-Conference Premier side Lewes in a run that lasted nine games and ended in a replay defeat at Conference North outfit Fleetwood Town in front of 2,000 fans after a record crowd of 1,250 had watched the First Round goalless draw at Victory Road.

After ten seasons in the Eastern Counties League the club gained promotion to the Isthmian League as champions.

The inaugural Isthmian League season provided unexpected success and at the first attempt secured the Division One North title with a 26-game unbeaten run.

Season 2017/18 saw the Blues record their highest ever finish at Step 3 of fifth and secured a first ever play-off place, but they lost 1-0 at Dulwich Hamlet in the semi-final.

In 2018/19, Leiston were switched to the Southern League Premier Division Central and only just avoided relegation in their first campaign and, of course, since then, the next two campaigns have been declared null and void due to the pandemic.

Stuart Boardley was both a firm favourite as a player at Victory Road and also as a coach and manager.

He made well over 300 appearances for the Blues in two spells.

The former Ipswich Town and Torquay United playmaker re-joined the club from AFC Sudbury in June 2008 and played a key part in the club's rise to the Isthmian Premier Division as a player.

A dead-ball specialist and always likely to get plenty of goals, often from distance, he hit over 50 league goals, and that having spent a good deal of his time at left back.

He began his career with the Tractor Boys but left without managing to break into the senior side at Portman Road.

He moved to Torquay United in September 2004 and played 14 times before returning to East Anglia by signing for Eastern Counties League side Long Melford in 2005.

But in November 2005, he moved to Leiston, managed then by former Ipswich Town and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jason Dozzell.

In June 2007, a fee was agreed which saw Boardley move to Isthmian League promotion chasers AFC Sudbury, but following a managerial change, he re-joined Leiston for a second spell in June 2008.

And he remained at Victory Road until 2017 when he moved down the coast to sign for Eastern Counties title-chasers Felixstowe & Walton United.

However, in October 2018, he was back at Leiston, this time as manager, but he departed just under a year later and returned to Isthmian North outfit Felixstowe as boss.

Central midfielder Gareth Heath is another of the club`s high appearance makers.

Rated by supporters as one of the best ever to play for Leiston, he totalled 278 games and chipped in with a very healthy 103 goals.

He is currently with league rivals Needham Market, having joined from the Blues in 2017.

He regularly featured in the Isthmian League team of the year when Leiston were members of that league.

His other former clubs include AFC Sudbury, Halstead Town, Maldon Town and Heybridge Swifts.

Striker Lee McGlone is currently the Blues` leading goalscorer with 112 goals in just under 200 matches between 2005 and

After starting out at Ipswich Town as a youngster, he signed for Leiston at the age of 19 from then-Eastern Counties League rivals Woodbridge Town in 2005.

He has had an excellent goalscoring record throughout his career, spending most of his time with Leiston during three separate spells and finishing the Eastern Counties Premier League’s top goalscorer in 2007 with 31 league goals.

He returned to Victory Road from Ipswich Wanderers in the summer of 2008.

And then at the start of the 2010/11 season, he transferred to Isthmian Premier Division neighbours Lowestoft Town and performed well until work commitments made it difficult for him to continue and Leiston bought him back to help them win the Eastern Counties League title.

He spent three months on loan with Hadleigh United in 2011/12 whilst recovering from a groin injury.

In January 2012, he was transferred to then-Isthmian Division One North side Needham Market.

Spells with Hadleigh United on a more permanent basis, Felixstowe & Walton United, Achilles and local side Hanley Athletic followed before he hung up his boots in 2018.

Glenn Driver scored 36 goals in 68 matches for Leiston`s first team in the Eastern Counties League.

He returned to the club after being player-manager of Suffolk & Ipswich League side Ipswich Exiles and was in charge of Leiston’s reserves in 2016/17 and led them to a sixth-place finish in the Eastern Counties League Division One.

In the summer of 2017, he was given the chance to step up and take control of the club’s first team following Richard Wilkins’ departure.

As well as seeing success in the Isthmian Premier Division with Leiston, when he led them to the play-offs and the club's highest-ever finish, he also took them to a first-ever Suffolk Premier Cup title as they beat Bury Town 3-0 in the final at Ipswich Town's Portman Road ground in May 2018.

Driver left Leiston in October 2018 and in June 2019, he was appointed as manager of National League South side Braintree Town.

However, by November 2019, Driver was back in the Leiston hot seat, but in March 2020, during the first lockdown, he quit Leiston and has so far rejected several offers to return to management.

Striker Matt Blake was one of Glenn Driver’s first signings in the summer of 2016.

He arrived from Norwich United, having scored 119 goals in all competitions in the previous three seasons, helping Norwich United to two Eastern Counties Premier Division titles.

He went on to score 42 goals in 2016/17, 29 of which were in the Isthmian Premier Division, which helped him win the `golden boot` in his first season.

He helped Leiston win the Suffolk Premier Cup in 2018 against Bury Town - a game in which he opened the scoring in a 3-0 win.

He also notched a hat-trick in the same competition in 2019 final to help the Blues beat Felixstowe & Walton United 3-2.

Against Leatherhead in 2018, he came off the bench to score two goals and help Leiston get a 2-2 draw that proved vital in securing a play-off place.

In total, Blake played 153 times in all competitions for Leiston, netting 79 times.

He was originally with Anglian Combination side Thetford Rovers and then Eastern Counties neighbours Thetford Town, left Leiston in September 2019 for Stowmarket Town and then joined Ipswich Wanderers in the summer of 2020.

One of Ipswich Town`s favourite players of all time actually started his career with Leiston.

Ted Phillips was reputed to have the hardest shot in football in his prime.

He started his career Leiston before doing his National Service and was recommended to Ipswich manager Scott Duncan by Leiston Town boss Ian Gillespie.

For a while, he wouldn`t sign because he could earn better money as a gardener at Tunstall and playing part-time for the Blues, but he finally accepted on the agreement that his travelling costs would be paid, and he would receive £8 a week.

Phillips made his debut for Ipswich at Watford in March 1954, but it was not until 1955/56 season that he started to show his true potential when Alf Ramsey was in his second season in charge.

Injuries frustrated Phillips, who spent 1955/56 season with Stowmarket Town in the Eastern Counties League, although Ipswich retained his registration.

It was not until the 1956/57 season that Ipswich realised that they had a prize asset.

Ipswich lost their first three matches in Division Three (South) without Phillips in the team and he was then selected in place of captain Tommy Parker for the home match with Bournemouth at the end of August and soon became an automatic choice.

That season he scored 41 League goals and 5 in the FA Cup as Ipswich won the title on goal average from Torquay United.

It was the season that Ramsey started to build his championship-winning team with Roy Bailey, Jimmy Leadbetter and John Elsworthy already installed.

Ray Crawford arrived from Portsmouth in September 1958 but Phillips’ partnership with him really began to develop in 1960/61 when Ipswich won the Second Division title by a point from Sheffield United.

Crawford scored 40 League goals and Phillips chipped in with 30.

In the championship-winning season, Crawford scored 33 in the League and Phillips 28.

Phillips never won an England cap, although he attended one international training session, hurt his ankle, and Jimmy Greaves was picked for the match instead.

Phillips left the Tractor Boys in 1964 and went on to have spells with Leyton Orient, Luton Town and Colchester United, as well as managing Maltese side Floriana, for whom the players would be blessed by the local priests before games!

He spent a couple of seasons in non-League football for Southern League Chelmsford City and with Long Melford in the late 1960s and early 70s before retiring and also played cricket for Colchester & East Essex and Suffolk.

After ending his full-time career, Phillips worked for Pirelli Cables in a time before footballers had the luxury of watching their earnings set them up for the rest of their days.

Jamie Stannard is rated as one of the best goalkeepers to have worn the green jersey for Leiston.

Stannard spent five years with former Eastern Counties League rivals Ipswich Wanderers before joining Leiston in 2010, helping the Blues achieve back-to-back promotions.

He re-joined Wanderers in 2013 but announced his retirement at the end of the 2013/14 season after a heroic display in the Suffolk Senior Cup final for Ipswich Wanderers saw him make four consecutive saves to help win a remarkable penalty shoot-out at Portman Road.

However, in February 2014 he was persuaded to don the gloves once more for Wanderers before calling it a day in 2015.

Midfielder Leon Ottley-Gooch joined Leiston in 2009.

He went on to become a consistent performer for the Blues, making 204 appearances and netting almost 50 goals, some of those coming in big matches, most notably the final game of the 2011/12 season against Potters Bar Town where he grabbed a hat-trick in 8 minutes that helped Leiston win the Isthmian League Division One North title.

He eventually left Leiston in the summer of 2017 after seven years at Victory Road and signed for Isthmian North outfit Bury Town.

However, his stay at Ram Meadow was a fairly brief one as he signed for neighbouring Eastern Counties outfit Stowmarket Town.

He left the Old Gold & Blacks in May 2020 and signed for Isthmian North side Felixstowe & Walton United a month later.

Another well-known figure to have worn the Blue strip of Leiston, albeit briefly, was Fabian Wilnis.

Wilnis` career began in his home country of Holland with Sparta Rotterdam, NAC Breda and De Graafschap.

In January 1999, he was signed by Ipswich Town for £200,000 and was a key part of George Burley's side which won promotion to the Premiership.

Voted player of the year for 2005/06, Wilnis went on to play over 300 games for the Tractor Boys and scored 6 goals, including the equaliser in a 1–1 draw against Manchester United and in a 2-0 win against local rivals Norwich City.

But under Jim Magilton, Wilnis frequently found himself on the sidelines, although he signed a new one-year contract in May 2007.

After Ipswich's final game of the 2007/08 season, Wilnis announced that he was to retire but was hoping for a coaching role with Ipswich, but that never materialised.

He joined then-Conference National side Grays Athletic on a one-year contract, taking him up to the end of the 2008/09 season.

After that he returned to Holland to play for VV Smitshoek in the fifth tier of Dutch football and then become assistant-manager of another Dutch non-League side VV Heerjansdam.

VV Heerjansdam compete in the Hoofdklasse, the second-highest level of amateur football in the Netherlands and three levels below the nation’s top-flight, The Eredivisie.

But it his involvement with a sportswear business in this country saw him return to England in 2011 and he initially helped out at Eastern Counties side Ipswich Wanderers after they had parted company with manager Steve Buckle.

The in 2014, at the age of 43, Wilnis answered a call to help out at Isthmian Premier side Leiston during an injury crisis.

He had kept himself reasonably fit through playing in charity games and coaching.

But it proved to be a brief return.

Danny Gay was another successful and popular goalkeeper with the Blues and several other East Anglian clubs.

Gay, who hails from King’s Lynn, started his career with Norwich City before joining Southend United where he played in the Football League.

He then started an illustrious non-League career playing for Hornchurch, Braintree Town, Bishop’s Stortford and Heybridge Swifts.

After a trial with Leeds United he joined Chelmsford City and then trialled with Norwich City again before going to home-town club King’s Lynn. But his stay at The Walks was brief as they were wound up and it was then onto Needham Market.

There he helped the club win the Eastern Counties League and promotion to the Isthmian League and 2010/11 saw them in the play-offs.

He signed for AFC Sudbury in July 2011 and the in September 2012, he re-joined the `new` King`s Lynn outfit until October 2013 when he signed for Leiston, then in the Isthmian Premier.

He remained at Victory Road until the summer of 2015 when he signed for then-Southern Premier Division side St Neots Town.

He moved to a then-Isthmian Premier Needham Market in November 2015 where he stayed until the end of the Marketmen`s first season as a Southern Premier Division outfit and he finally hung up his gloves in May 2018 at the age of 35.

The skillful Danny Cunningham was another big favourite the Leiston supporters.

He burst on the scene at Leiston after a first spell with AFC Sudbury but also had to endure a dreadful period in his life.

In 2008/09, after drawing 1-1 at home to Lewes in an FA Cup Fourth Qualifying round tie, with a goal scored by Cunningham, the Leiston man then went from hero to villain in the space of 72 hours, being arrested for drug offences he went to jail for, as the Leiston team bus pulled up outside Lewes' ground for the replay.

He pleaded guilty and was jailed for two years, although he was released after nine months.

He went on to sign for Bury Town in 2011 before spells with Needham Market, Leiston again, back at AFC Sudbury and with Stowmarket Town, who he first joined in the summer of 2016.

He made 32 appearances in a historic campaign, scoring 6 goals as Stowmarket went on to lift the Eastern Counties League First Division title and seal the club’s first promotion to Step 5.

He left Stowmarket in October of the following season to join Coggeshall Town whom he immediately helped to win the Premier Division for promotion to Step 4 in the Isthmian North.

In October 2019 he signed for Stanway Rovers, scoring 5 goals from 23 appearances, and then re-joined Stowmarket in the summer of 2020.

In his two stints with Leiston, Cunningham totalled 142 games and scored 22 goals.

The Chenery family are well-known in the East Anglia area and three of them plied their trade with Leiston.

Midfielder Carl Chenery was a gifted left-footed midfielder who led by example and won representative honours for Suffolk.

An instrumental playmaker, he made over 114 appearances for the Blues and scored 22 times.

He had a spell away with Eastern Counties neighbours Kirkley & Pakefield before returning to Victory Road, this time as manager in 2008.

His spell in charge ended in May 2010, despite guiding the Blues to third place in the Eastern Counties League – he was replaced by Mark Morsley.

Chenery was more recently manager of Suffolk & Ipswich League sides Halesworth Town and Wenhaston United.

Striker Justyn Chenery came from Halesworth and went on to score 41 goals in 123 games for Leiston.

Good in the air and on the ground, he was the Blues` leading scorer for three successive seasons.

He went on to play for Kirkley & Pakefield.

Defender Trevor Chenery was a pacey, attacking full back who joined the Blues, also from Halesworth, in 1997.

However, he was never quite able to sustain a permanent place in the first team.

Leiston Web Site