Southall

Like many famous old names in amateur football, Southall FC have suffered since the advent of semi-professionalism and the drop in crowds that clubs faced from the mid sixties onwards. The club were FA Amateur Cup finalists in 1925 and reached the FA Cup first round on six occasions.

Southall were founded in 1871 and in their time were members of the Southern and Athenian Leagues. They became founder members of the second tier of the Isthmian League in 1973 but never got any higher. they tried a name change and were called Southall & Ealing Borough between 1975 and 1980 when future West Ham United and England star, Alan Devonshire turned out for the club. They reached the FA Vase Final of 1986 with a another future England player Les Ferdinand leading their attack.

Sadly it was downhill from then and as gates dropped there was no money to maintain their Western Road home. Over the years the ground became more dilapidated and weed-strewn and in 1992 Southall FC moved out abandoning Western Road to the inevitable fate of demolition and replacement with housing. The old place had one last piece of stardom as it was used in the filming of an episode in the ninth series of Minder (the 94th episode in total) entitled "Last Orders at the Winchester." It was first shown on the 4th March 1993 and on a vandalised ground with the pitch in a right state, Dave's club faces permanent closure when one of Arthur's money making schemes goes disastrously wrong. In an attempt to save it, Ray decides to organise a charity football match against the local police force! Western Road was demolished in 1996 and one of the great non league grounds was lost.

The club carried on down to the Combined Counties League in 1990 and then the Middlesex League from 2006 when finances hit a new critical low.

From 1996 the club led a somewhat nomadic existance. Ealing Council had promised a new ground at Glade Lane after redeveloping Western Road but then a new club Southall Town were formed from nowhere and got the nod for the new ground whilst Southall played at Yeading and Chalfont St Peter. Town folded after four years and the promise of the new ground vanished with them.

Southall continued and played games at the University Ground on Argyle Road, Ealing Central Sports Ground and then Viking FC's old ground on Western Avenue and Osterley Sports Ground as the club played Middlesex League football. In 2010 Southall were taken over by the company; Football & More Ltd, with the new company name of Lyca Southall FC. In 2010-11 the club played their home games at Northolt Rugby Club in Greenford. 

A move was made for the start of the 2011-12 season to share Reynolds Field with Hanwell Town FC as a soccer school was also set up to try and bring the youngsters of the community together. After a relatively successful Middlesex League season, which ended in a third place finish, Southall were promoted to the Spartan South Midlands League. 

In October 2013 the club received promising news that Ealing Council had chosen them as the preferred partner for the redevelopment of Norwood Hall Playing Fields, which would transform dilapidated facilities into something for the community to be proud of, including a first team venue for the club.

Southall FC will play in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One in the 2014-15 season. 

 

My visits

On Sunday 15th January 1984 I was out on a groundhop before I realised the value of a day travel card in London. Instead I paid for each bus ride separately and ended up walking miles to save money. How ironic as I write this blog I'm employed to offer customers travel advice in the capital!

I got to Western Road and the big metal fences were locked. I feared the worse but I found a wooden turnstile gate opened so I entered. I couldn't believe my eyes as I got round the corner past the raised clubhouse and offices to view the ground for the first time. Often you are let down when expecting something grand, often grounds have a similar basic layout but this place was a real beauty.

Southall had amalgamated with Park Royal FC in the 1920's and the team was predominantly made up of skilled labourers and, in their spare time, they set about improving Western Road. Although decaying by the time of my visit it still showed signs of class. The near end consisted of rows of terracing that continued round the corner to a smallish cover, where once stood the original main Stand before it was destroyed by fire. A high bank of open terracing stood at the far end with the near side also having plenty of room on its terracing. A replacement stand stood on top of the banking looking down on proceedings over the players tunnel. All the terracing had metal crush barriers and a neat metal fence encircled the pitch.

It was a stunning place. I'm just fed up I didn't get to a game there. Sadly as mentioned above, the ground suffered from lack of maintenance and vandalism as the areas demographics changed dramatically. In a 2001 census of the area, just 11% of the community were white with the new inhabitants having different interests than their local non league football club.

Southall 2 Codicote 0 – Abandoned at half time (Wednesday 18^th December 2013) Spartan South Midlands League Division One (att: approx 30)

Having felt rough for a few days with cold I wanted to get some fresh air to try and complete my recovery. Although the fixture list was hardly bulging I decided to finally go and take in a Southall game, as getting to Reynolds Field was relatively easy.

The winds were up as I alighted at Wembley Park for the 297 bus. On route the rain started to lash down as the bus seemed to take an eternity through the Asian heartlands of Wembley, Alperton and Perivale. I got to the ground with the game already five minutes in.

The welcoming official charged me £2, deducting me a quid as they’d run out of programmes. He promised to sort something out for me, even if it was just so I could take a photo for this page.

I went down the steps and stood under the cover behind the goal. The spectators were split between there and being huddled at the back of the seated stand. The wind was howling and rain showing no signs of letting up. Southall went one up after a fine move saw Josh Brown hammer in a shot from the edge of the box. I mentioned to the loyal home fans that it may have been in vain in light of the conditions as puddles were beginning to form.

After around thirty minutes another problem arose as the floodlights went out. The players and fans took refuge in the clubhouse and changing rooms. The clubhouse also doubled up as a school during the week and was lacking many creature comforts, but it was better than the poshest lounge on such an awful night. Some groundhoppers were lamenting that it could have been their second abandonment in two nights after Monday’s game at Rayners Lane had bitten the dust owing to a player injury. It was nice to have a chat with some nice people who genuinely loved the game.

The lights go out!

The lights came back on after about fifteen minutes, so I went back out and got chatting to a smashing bloke from Stanmore who went to around six games a week after previously following West Ham.

The wind and pitch conditions were seriously affecting the standard of the game. The visitors held a good line at the back catching the Southall forwards offside regularly. A scramble at the other end nearly resulted in an equaliser before David Bitsindou smashed home a quality finish into the roof of the net from an acute angle to make it 2-0.

A Codicote midfielder smashed a shot against the crossbar from thirty yards with the home keeper stranded. Southall looked a very decent side on what I’d seen, although Codicote also contributed some bright moments. At half time everyone made a dash for the covered facilities.

The kind home official, quite probably Vice Chairman Charanjit Singh Gill took me to the board room so I could take an image of the programme, before I bought a cup of tea for 80p and rejoined the conversation in the bar. 

A few subs went out to the pitch but started returning with the practise balls while the goalnets were being rolled up. The match had been abandoned, quite rightly in my opinion. It was suggested that the far side linesman may have pushed for this decision. If it was, then he should have been awarded ten out of ten for common sense. I had total respect for all the players and officials for giving it a go, but common sense had prevailed.

I got a lovely tweet from the Southall account after I had posted a photo of the game. They hoped I would return in nicer conditions. My whole experience suggested I would be doing so!

For a description of Reynolds Field, please go to the Hanwell Town page at: http://www.worldgroundhoptwo.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Hanwell%20Town

Some photos on this page have been taken from the internet to add to the three from my own personal collection.