Farnborough

Farnborough FC is a non-league football club who were formed in 2007, following the liquidation of Farnborough Town FC who started out in 1967. The town itself is located thirty- four miles south west of London and has grown as villages have joined up from its suburbs.

Farnborough Town started out in local league competition playing at Queens Road before progressing to the Spartan League, later to become the London Spartan League, where they were crowned champions in 1973-74 and 1974-75, moving to the John Roberts Ground on Cherrywood Road around the same time.

The following season Boro reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase losing out to Billericay Town, before joining the Athenian League. where once again they failed to make a Wembley appearance by failing at the final hurdle to the same opponents in 1976-77.

In 1977 Farnborough joined of the Isthmian League as members of Division Two; winning that league title in 1978-79. A first appearance in the first round of the FA Cup followed in 1980-81, ending in defeat to Yeovil Town.

The same stage of the competition was reached in 1984-85 where Hereford United ended the run. In 1985-86 Farnborough won the Division One title to reach the Premier Division. The period continued to see FA Cup first round matches for the club.

In 1985-86 Bath City proved too strong with Swindon Town seeing off a giant killing in a match switched to the County Ground the following season. Cambridge United in 1987-88, Hereford United in 1989-90 and Fulham in 1990-91 all defeated Farnborough at the same stage.

By then Boro had progressed to the Football Conference; having finished as Isthmian League runners-up in 1988-89 as the ground of champions as Leytonstone/Ilford failed to meet the criteria required for promotion.

Unfortunately, their spell in non-league's elite lasted just one year before they suffered relegation. However, the team quickly regrouped and returned at the first time of asking by lifting the Southern League title.

In 1990-91 Town became the first non-league club to feature in a live Sky TV game, when they overcame Torquay United 4-3 in an FA Cup replay at Cherrywood Road.

Later that season they were drawn at home to West Ham United in the third round but chose to switch the game to Upton Park. Farnborough put in a tremendous performance to draw 1-1 to take the game to a replay where they went down to the only goal of the game.

Legendary manager Ted Pearce stepped down at the end of the 1992-93 season after an incredible twenty three years in charge of the team. Alan Taylor stepped up in his place after the team was relegated to the Southern League.

Farnborough won an immediate return by winning the league title in 1993-94 in a season that saw the FA Cup campaign end in the first round to Exeter City. More first round appearances came in 1995-95 v Brentford, in 1996-97 against Barnet and in 1997-98 when Dagenham & Redbridge ended dreams of further glory.

A disastrous 1998-99 campaign, which saw Taylor depart before spells from John Harding and former player Dean Coney, ended in relegation to the Isthmian League.

Graham Westley took over as team manager as well as buying a controlling interest in the club; changing the club colours to red and white and installing a new doctrine. In 2000-01 Westley took the team up as champions, returning to the Conference.

Westley renamed the ground as the Aimita Stadium after the company owned by him. Aimita was an acronym for 'Attitude is more important than ability'. The team seemed to take heed and reached the first round of the FA Cup in 2001-02 before going out away to Halifax Town.

Westley also attempted to merge Farnborough with Kingstonian but was denied by fans resistance around the time. His reasoning was that The K's had a ready made Football League standard stadium.

The 2002-03 season saw Farnborough hit the headlines as a fine FA Cup run saw off Molesey, Harrogate Town, Southport and then Darlington to be rewarded with a home tie against Arsenal in round four.

The match was controversially moved to Highbury to make gate receipts of £600,000 and ended in a 5-1 defeat. Shortly afterwards Westley resigned his position and left the club to join Stevenage Borough as manager, to plenty of ill feeling from Farnborough fans.

The following campaign saw one final FA Cup round one appearance; going out to Weston-Super-Mare before being relegated to Conference South in 2004-05 with mounting debts. In the 2006-07 season the club entered into administration and were docked ten points. In May 2007 the club was liquidated.

Soon after the new club was set up with fans voting upon the name Farnborough FC and returning to their yellow and blue strip. The team were placed in Southern League Division One South & West, which was a relegation of two divisions. They won the title at the first attempt to reach the Premier Division.

All was still not well at the club financially and during the 2009-10 season they faced a winding up order in court as manager Steve King spent big on player recruitment. This was avoided as they won promotion back to Conference South at the end of the season.

The following season the club were hit with a transfer embargo, but King's side still reached the end of season play offs where they lost 4-2 to Ebbsfleet United in the final. King departed to be replaced by another highly controversial figure as huge works were carried out to renovate the stadium.

Spencer Day is probably better known by his former name, Spencer Trethewy. Trethewy; a property developer claimed to have saved Aldershot FC in 1990 while just nineteen years old. He was soon removed from their board when it transpired that he didn't have access to the £200,000 he claimed he did.

In 1994 he was jailed for running up bills for his company while they were suspended from trading, before he changed his name by deed poll in 1998. In 2007 he bought Chertsey Town FC to become owner and team manager having amassed reported millions from his business interests, before leaving to take the manager’s job at Farnborough.

The club were still in financial trouble and Day assisted behind the scenes while the club entered negotiations with a consortium headed by former team captain Tim O'Shea, which got extremely heated at times. In January Day 'reluctantly' took control of the club after negotiations broke down over claims that O'Shea wanted to install himself as manager.

In July 2012 the club announced that it would be calling in the Police to examine an attempted fraud at the club and previous financial irregularities. The financial status continued to blight the club during the 2012-13 season as the team was docked fourteen points.

Boro were relegated to the Isthmian League at the end of the 2014-15 campaign; from where they were transferred to the Division One Central of the Southern League for the 2016-17 season. Day took the team to the play-offs, defeating Egham Town and then Barton Town to win promotion to the Premier Division. 

Veteran striker Jamie Cureton weighing in with the goals before the side averted relegation in 2017-18, when Farnborough were placed in Premier Division South after non-league re-organisation. Boro were in twelfth place when the 2019-20 season ended early owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus.

In 2021-22 Farnborough reached the playoffs where they defeated Metropolitan Police and then Hayes & Yeading United to reach National League South, where they enjoyed a season of consolidation prior to ending eighth in 2023-24.

Farnborough FC will play in the National League South in the 2024-25 season.

My visits

Farnborough Town 1 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 14th September 2002) Football Conference (att: 629)

Part of the bonus of living in London was being able to get to games I'd never have done if still in North Yorkshire, and here was another example. I had Saturday's off in winter from my job at Lord's Cricket Ground and looked forward to Boro's away games near to the capital.

I was joined for the day by Dave Cammish who had started going to the occasional match after giving up his season ticket at Leeds United and general falling out of love with the Premier League and modern big time football. That said, it was the same day as Leeds were kicking off at midday against Man Utd and he wanted to see the game. I wasn't against an earlier train and a few beers in a pub either!

Dave had made preliminary enquiries and found a pub called the The Thatched Cottage, which was a fifteen minute walk from the station. It was only just opening when we arrived, but they quickly confirmed that they didn't have Sky. This was not promising as we hadn't passed any other pubs on the way. Dave suggested we walked back past the station and see if we could find anywhere, but on the way my non league knowledge bore fruit.

I saw signs for Cove FC. I remembered the name as a team from the Isthmian League so natuarally they'd have a clubhouse. We wandered down the narrow lane and found the ground. There were a ahndful in the clubhouse and they did have Sky and said we were OK to stay and watch the game. 

What a result! We got beer at cheaper prices while helping another club, and to Dave's joy Harry Kewell scored the only goal near the end. The home counties Man Utd fans didn't quite see it that way! We set out up Prospect Road on the long trek and onto Cherrywood Road to the ground. 

We went into the clubhouse, which resembled an aircraft hanger. It was lacking furniture and just had a few TVs on the wall. We spoke with some locals who shook their heads in sorrow. Mr Westley had ripped apart a lovely homely clubhouse that once had darts, dominoes and pool teams as well as local residents as customers to suit his bright new image and utilise the room for outside functions. 

We really felt for them and our opinions of Westley were quickly gathering pace. We went inside the ground to join the other average turn out of Seadogs. It was an average venue, which Westley claimed he had big plans for. It was painted red as he claimed that teams in red were more successful. 

The Prospect Road End was open standing apart from a small cover in the centre. The far Moor Road End was open hard standing on a slope with a small amount of terracing. The Main Stand was a raised seating deck with a noticeable single tiered seating extension added on. 

There was open standing either side. The final side had a long low cover and was primarily terracing with some seats at the Moor Road End for away fans when segregation was in place.

Scarborough played reasonably well on the day if memory serves me right, but fell behind. After a quick drink in the club at half time Boro came out and pressed and eventually scored an equaliser through Bimbo Fatokun. Unfortunately they couldn't find a winner but we were reasonably satisfied with an away point.

We walked back and stopped for a pint at the rather stuffy Thatched Cottage and then had another at the strangely named Ham and Blackbird near the station while we waited for our train back to London.

Wednesday 20th June 2012

I had the day off work and had a few hours to kill before a meet in the West End of London at 4.30pm. I decided to spend the day out in the lovely weather and to do some exercise while visiting some football grounds. 

I originally intended to return to Farnborough and some nearby venues, but nearly had a change of mind to go to Sussex and Surrey. However, at the last minute I plumped for Plan A.

I had called in on Cove FC and set out on the road to Cherrywood Road as it was now known as, after a brief period of being Rushmoor Stadium. It was just as far as I remembered and I wasn't upset to reach my destination.

The car park had quite a few vehicles in, with an attendant in place, which looked a good business for the club. I looked along the side behind the Main Stand but couldn't find any open gates. I did take a couple of photos over a wall, but I wanted to get inside. I went inside the now refurbished clubhouse and asked the barman for permission. 

The bloke at the end of the bar piped up and said it was no problem. He was the groundsman and he turned out to be friendly and helpful. A little tip if anyone ever wants assistance is to tell the groundsman how good his pitch looks. It quickly gets you on his side!

The ground had changed massively since my previous visit. All the paintwork had been restored to the proper club colours and looked in tip top condition. The Main Stand had been extended in 2008 at the front to fit in with its earlier addition. Along the touchline was a new area of covered terracing. 

The Moor Road End had been re-terraced and had a roof at the rear. An electric scoreboard adorned the far end. The covered stand opposite was now all seated and finally the Prospect Road End had changed out of all recognition. A large seated stand stood there to hold 1,350 fans when completed. 

The groundsman told me that it was due to be finished before the start of the new season. I had heard a rumour that it was the old East Stand from Feethams in Darlington, but he corrected me. The club had put in a tender for that stand, but lost out. It would have gone down the whole of the Main Stand side.

He told me to walk round the ground and take my time. It was greatly appreciated and in common with so many wonderful proud people I meet on my travels. I did do a lap to get all the pictures I needed before I headed for the way out, or so I thought!

I managed to get lost inside the stand and no matter how many times I tried to locate the door to the clubhouse I couldn't find it. I ended up in the home dressing room at one point. I really was confused. In the end I opened one of the main exit gates and closed it behind me before popping my head into the clubhouse to say my thank yous.

In usual circumstances I would have stayed for a beer, but I had plans to head to Woking for more adventures. I had around eighteen minutes to reach the station and it was a mile and a half away. Otherwise I'd have a thirty minute wait. Well I was determined to keep to a more rigorous diet and fitness plan, and here was a good test.

I caught my train after a mixture of brisk walking and jogging with a couple of minutes to spare. I was sure glad that I had a drink in my bag for the ride!

Farnborough 4 Hendon 0 (Wednesday 6^th November 2019) Southern League Premier Division South (att: 176)

It was interesting times as a Hendon fan. Manager Jimmy Gray had left the club by mutual consent after some indifferent results. Within a few hours the club had appointed Lee Allinson who left his post with Biggleswade Town.

The new man brought his coaching team with him, with imminent signings in the offing. I personally liked the former boss, but something had to give eventually. It just wasn’t working out.

My brother Nick was down on business so joined Lee, who was driving us. Bob was already waiting for the ride at Harrow-on-the-Hill on our arrival. The journey was quicker than we anticipated as we pulled in nearly an hour before kick-off.

The friendly bar offered a nice haven even if I inadvertently left the bar without paying for my round, which was greeted with great laughter when the old girl serving came to our table asking for the cash.

The Dons lined up with an unfamiliar formation. Scott McGleish had been put in charge of selection and tactics with the new management looking on and taking notes. I can imagine it was somewhat of a rude awakening.

It was a damp and cold evening. The sparse crowd looked quite sad in such an impressive arena. Our mood wasn’t lifted as the Dons, wearing a horrible illuminous all orange outfit, went behind after just five minutes.

It might have been the start of a new era, but the goal epitomised lots of what we’d witnessed of late. A cross from Reggie Young was cleared first time by a defender, only for the ball to ricochet against Thomas Leggett and fly past Chris Grace in goal.

Young’s winger colleague Andrew Sealey-Harris was also having joy against his full back as Hendon struggled. Around the half hour mark Tre Charles was dispossessed with the ball being fed to Connor Cullen who scored with a fine strike from the edge of the box.

Connor Calcutt back at his old stamping ground put in a bit of effort for the visitors before Sergio Manesio had a shot tipped round the post by Boro keeper Liam Beech shortly after the resumption of the second half.

Sealey-Harris made it 3-0 on fifty-eight minutes with a shot from twenty-five yards that Grace should really have dealt with, albeit gathering pace off the slippery surface. Some of the reactions on the away team bench throughout the encounter told their own story.

CJ Fearn was having a good game at the heart of the hosts defence on the occasions Hendon mustered anything in the way of an attacking threat. Hamblin went close for the Londoners with a header, but it was a scant offering.

Grace meanwhile pulled off a couple of good stops in an attempt to stem the tide, but he could do nothing to prevent Fearn rounding off the scoring with ten minutes remaining when the visitors failed to deal with a corner, allowing the stopper to score from five yards.

It certainly left Allinson and his team with food for thought and no doubt a severe thumbing of their contact’s book. We headed back in no doubt of the task in hand for the Dons, which Nick and I mulled over while enjoying a few pints back in Kingsbury.