Arlesey Town

Arlesey Town FC is a non-league football club that was formed in 1891 and come from the small Bedfordshire town of the same name, located around thirty-five miles north of London. The club started out life as members of the Biggleswade & District League.

A move to the Bedfordshire County League followed in 1922, later leaving on a couple of occasions before re-joining each time throughout the decade. The competition was renamed the South Midlands League for the 1929-30 season. Town played in Division Two.

The team won that title in at the first attempt but were relegated from Division One after just one season. A further Division Two title was collected in 1931-32 prior to another sabbatical away from the league.

Arlesey returned to win Division Two in 1936-37 to gain promotion to Division One, which later became the Premier Division in 1947. ‘The Blues’ ended as runners-up in 1950-51 before lifting the Bedfordshire County League crown in 1951-52.

After retaining the title twelve months later the club advanced to the Parthenon League in 1954, where they remained for four seasons until becoming members of the London League, playing out two seasons prior to re-joining Division One of the South Midlands League in 1961.

The side were promoted, despite a lowly finish on their return in 1961-62 owing to a reorganising of the league. Town were relegated in 1962-63 before regaining their Premier Division status at the end of the 1963-64 campaign.

The highlights over the following eighteen seasons were third places in 1964-65, 1977-78 and 1978-79, which was bettered with runners-up places in 1968-69 and 1981-82. The latter of which led to a move to the Premier Division of the United Counties League for the 1982-83 season.

The league title was lifted in 1984-85 but rising expenses forced the club to withdraw to the Premier Division of the South Midlands League following the 1991-92 campaign. Under the managership of Robbie O’Keefe Arlesey were crowned as champions in 1994-95.

The team also embarked on a memorable FA Vase run in the same season, twelve months after reaching the quarter final stage. Hoddesdon Town, Boston Town, Barnstaple Town, Diss Town and Cammell Laird were all defeated.

In the semi-final tie against Raunds Town, the Blues trailed 3-0 after the first leg before a thumping 5-0 win at Lamb Meadow set up a Wembley final against Oxford City. Goals from Paul Palma and a winner from Sandor Gyalog ten minutes from time secured a 2-1 win to lift the trophy.

The club were placed in Premier Division North of the reorganised Spartan South Midlands League for the 1997-98 season before a seventh place led to a place in the Premier Division the following campaign.

In 1999 the club moved from the Lamb Meadow, which was sold for housing to take up residence at a new ground half a mile further south on Hitchin Road, which was named New Lamb Meadow, which was titled the Armadillo Stadium in a sponsorship deal for several future years.

The fine new arena was built with progression in mind, with the team taking heed as the league was won in the 1999-00 season, leading to promotion to Division Three of the Isthmian League where the title was won at a canter at the first attempt.

League re-organisation in 2002 saw Town placed in Division One North before being transferred to Division One East of the Southern League in 2004-05 before returning to Division One North of the Isthmian League in 2006.

Two seasons later Arlesey were shifted again, this time to Division One Midlands of the Southern League for two seasons and then Division One Central in 2010-11, going on to win the title and promotion to the Premier Division.

Town under manager Zema Abbey, reached the first round of the FA Cup in 2011-12, going down 3-1 away to Salisbury City. The same stage was reached in 2012-13 which ended in a 3-0 defeat to Coventry City at the Ricoh Arena. Sixth place also marked a new record high league finish.

Relegation back to Division One Central followed in 2014-15 where the team remained until a swap to Division One East from where they dropped back down to the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.

The team stabilised with an eighth place in 2018-19 under the management team of Matt Endersby and James Hatch. Chico Ramos was appointed as manager in November 2019 with the 2019-20 aborted season owing to the Coronavirus pandemic seeing the Blues end in sixteenth spot, while the following season was also halted prematurely.

Ramos departed in November 2021 to be replaced by Martin Standen whose side ended the season in midtable before the appointment of Nick Brown in June 2022. Arelesey ended the 2022-23 campaign at the bottom end of the table.  

Tommy Cooney came in as player manager in December 2023, with the side once again finishing below expectations while former Premier League forward Dave Kitson ended his tenure as chairman.

Arlesey Town FC will play in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Baldock Town 2 St Margaretsbury 2 - 2-4 after penalties (Wednesday 2nd September 2020) FA Cup Extra Preliminarily Round (att: 140)

Click here to read a full report of the evening, game and view additional images.

Ideally, I would have visited New Lamb Meadow for an Arlesey Town home game, but this was certainly better than nothing. I’d whizzed past the old Lamb Meadow ground on many occasions by high speed train as it backed onto the East Coast main line, thus sparking my awareness of the club.

My first impressions as we pulled into the car park was that the ground wasn’t quite in the middle of nowhere as it looked on Google Maps. I’d been told it was a good venue and the scale was certainly larger than I anticipated.

What was obvious is that it was built with ambition for the club in mind, but a lack of crowds, success and further investment were beginning to show as one or two fences were in need of repair and weeks were crowing on the hard standing.

The slightly elevated Main Stand was all seating, with the clubhouse further up along with a function suite towards the corner flag. An area of open terracing was behind the far goal from the entrance along with a small cover near to where a second set of turnstiles were located that didn’t look to have been used for several years.

The fair side had another decent sized covered stand which consisted half of it being seated and the other half terracing. Behind it was a second pitch where something was going on. The town end was a small section of open flat standing.

Me and my pal were lucky enough to see a compelling FA Cup tie and enjoyed our visit. The clubhouse was good as was the viewing. Maybe one day I’ll return to see the Blues in action.