Whatever Happened to….Woodford United

The club who finished a season with no points!

Before the dawn of the railway, Woodford Halse was a sleepy backwater untouched by time and reliant on a small local ironstone foundry.

Then, with the cutting of the Great Central Railway line through the Midlands at the end of the 19th Century, the village steadily grew in numbers and expanded in size.

It was with the arrival of the railway that migrant workers and their families settled in the village.

Playing as Woodford Central (after the station), the village team was largely made up of railway workers seeking respite after a long and hard week digging sidings and laying track but the team was soon considered a local footballing force.

During the Great War, many of the men were commissioned to continue building the rapidly expanding rail network as munitions and supplies were ferried towards the trenches of northern France.

And in 1940, the team was disbanded as many of the village’s men swapped shirts and shorts for battledress.

It wasn’t until the end of the Second World War that the returning soldiers started a club with senior status.

As the next generation grew up, local league football in the Rugby & District League underwent a renaissance and the club started to rebuild.

In 1964 it joined the Central Northants Combination and won the title twice and League Cup once within the first three seasons.

Still a club intent on establishing itself in a vastly expanding and competitive Midland`s football arena, the club sought new and harder challenges and joined the United Counties League in 1970.

Under the management of Alf Fox, the club was Division Two champions and achieved the league and cup `double` in 1973/74.

But not even Woodford Halse survived privatisation. In 1978, the railway authorities sold the ground and Woodford United moved to the village recreation ground in Byfield Road where it remains today.

The Club also decided to re-join the Central Northants Combination League and was able to develop local talent, attract players from rival clubs.

In 1998 the club re-joined the United Counties League and won promotion to the Premier Division in 2002.

The following year, in recognition of its work within the community, the club gained prestigious FA Charter Standard Community Club status and received a grant from the Football Foundation and Stadia Improvement Fund.

The small village club reached the Third Round of the FA Vase and in the 2005/06 season won the UCL Premier Division, gaining automatic promotion to the Southern League Division One Midlands and it has also reached the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Cup in three consecutive seasons.

Now under the off-the-field direction of chairman Andy Worrall and on-the-field guidance of manager Phil Mason, the former Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers, Kettering Town and Aylesbury United midfielder, and with a new £300,000 stand, clubhouse and changing facilities, Woodford had a spell as a successful and vibrant family-oriented football club at the heart of its community.

Whether it was the challenge of keeping a small village club at Step 4 of the non-League Pyramid or other off-the-field issues that caused the club to suffer, all will become clear no doubt in years to come.

But after a good, eighth-place finish in their first season in the Southern League things started to go badly wrong.

Mason quit and reserve tam boss Mark O`Callaghan took over the reins, only to swiftly hand them over to former Rugby Town and Leamington defender Darran Tank and Ady Fuller.

Fuller, a UEFA B Licence coach, has experience at both Step 3 and 4 in the Southern League as manager with Banbury United – where he spent ten years as a player before taking over as manager – and Daventry Town.

Tank stood down due to work and family commitments a year later and Phil Mason returned to work alongside Fuller and Jason Burnham.

Burnham started his career as a trainee at Notts County before moving to Northampton Town in 1991 where he went on to make 88 appearances.

He was transferred to Chester City in 1994 and then to Southern Premier Division side Worcester City in August 1996.

In 1999 he transferred to Boston United for a £5,000 fee, having been player of the year at Worcester for 1997/98.

Moved on to Cambridge City and later played Rugby Town, Atherstone United, Halesowen Town and Aylesbury United, Banbury United, Racing Club Warwick, Cogenhoe United and then Woodford.

Season 2009/10 saw Mason back in control with Burnham and Fuller having departed to take charge of Wellingborough Town.

A large chunk of Woodford`s squad went with Burnham and Fuller to the Dog & Duck, leaving Mason and his new assistant, Casey Waldock, who stepped up from the reserve side to re-build.

And 2010/11 proved to be their third-best campaign as a Southern League club, finishing ninth with the likes of former Banbury United players Craig Pearman, Ricky Johnson and Neil King leading the way.

Mason originally committed his future to Woodford at the start of the 2012/13 season to begin his tenth campaign in charge in two spells at Byfield Road.

But, despite doing a tremendous job in keeping Woodford competitive in the Southern Division One Central on a shoestring budget, he was surprisingly relieved of his duties at the start of September 2012 after a poor start to the campaign.

He was swiftly appointed as Wellingborough`s new boss but, despite making a number of changes to the playing personnel, has was unable to alter the on-field fortunes, and left with the club second-bottom of the United Counties League Premier Division table.

The new man in charge at Woodford was former Birmingham City, Yeovil Town and Banbury United prolific marksman, Howard Forinton.

But with the budget cut to almost nothing, Forinton swiftly departed to one of his former clubs, Banbury, as player-coach.

Various people tried to halt the slide but, in the end, it came down to youth team bosses, the late Paul Oddy, and Richard Williams to keep things going to avoid a hefty fine for pulling out of the Southern League.

The team was made up of lads from the youth side and the almost inevitable happened – the team suffered one hammering after another.

It`s a credit to them and the boys that they travelled midweek and weekends to the likes of Fleet Town, Slough Town and eventual champions Burnham without pay or expenses.

The end of the 2012/13 season though couldn`t come quickly enough and they ended the campaign with a record 185 goals conceded and just 21 for, losing all 42 league matches.

As a result, they voluntarily relegated two divisions into Division One of the United Counties League and their sequence of 65 consecutive matches without a win finally ended with a 2-1 away to Blackstones on November 2nd, 2013!

The following season saw them lose all but one of their matches as they finished bottom of the table again.

Despite improving in the next two seasons to finish 14th, the club dropped out of the United Counties League at the end of 2016/17, returning to the Premier Division of the Northants Combination.

Now they possess a new chairman and although the club remains at Step 7 in the non-League Pyramid, they seemed to have weathered the storm.