London Colney

London Colney FC is a football club based in a large village of the same name near St Albans in Hertfordshire. The club was formed in 1907 and played local football before joining the Herts County League in 1955 while based at Whitehorse Lane.

The team were crowned as league champions in 1956-57 and 1959-60. In 1976, the club moved to their new ground, Cotlandswick Park. The 80s saw the league renamed as the Herts Senior County League, with Colney picking up further league titles in 1986-87, 1988-89 and 1989-90.

The club progressed to join the Spartan South Midlands League, finishing Division One runners-up in their debut campaign of 1992-93. This led to a place in the newly formed Senior Division, where they again ended as runners-up in 1993-94.

The 'Blueboys’ continued their upward curve as the Senior Division title was collected in 1994-95, winning promotion to the Premier Division. Mick Wright was accompanied by Malcolm Doctor as joint-manager for the 1999-00 season.

The village of London Colney became home to the training grounds of both Watford FC and Arsenal FC on Bell Lane just to the south of the village since the facilities were developed in 1999.

Second place was achieved in 2000-01 before winning the league championship in 2001-02. Doctor stepped back, with John Templeton taking over his position. Templeton was left in sole charge at the start of the 2004-05 season, before being replaced by Nigel Tester. 

The team gradually slipped down the league places until they were relegated in the bottom spot at the end of the 2007-08 season before the appointment of Julian Robinson, as a new young squad was assembled. 

Dave Townsend was appointed as manager ahead of the 2010-11 season, before the following campaign was led by Ryan Thompson. The Division One title was won in 2011-12 to herald a return to the Premier Division as the prolific Matty Newman put away the goals.

Further runners-up places came in 2014-15 under new boss Jim Nicholls, before the manager took on the role of chairman, with Thompson returning for a second spell in charge of the team. The Blueboys finished as league runners-up in 2015-16 behind Kings Langley.

Colney lifted the Premier Division crown in 2016-17 under new manager Joe Sweeney. However, the club declined promotion to the Isthmian League to ensure financial stability. This led to the manager departing along with most of his squad.

The board had decided they also wanted to step down, with the club being in danger of folding with immediate effect. A new consortium, led by Gareth Davies, took over the club and installed former Football League goalscoring legend Ken Charlery as manager.

The 2022-23 season ended in relegation to Division One of the Combined Counties League. A lateral transfer to Division One of the Spartan South Midlands League saw the club return to their regular competition for the 2024-25 season, where they were reprieved from further relegation.

London Colney FC will compete in the Spartan South Midlands League Division One in the 2025-26 season.

My visits

Wednesday 22nd July 2009

London Colney isn't the easiest of places to reach as it has no rail link. It requires a bus ride from Potters Bar, Boreham Wood or St Albans. I arrived from Potters Bar after a visit to their ground while listening to the unveiling of Sven Goran Eriksson as manager of Notts County, a move that predictably led to misery for the fans. 

I got off and walked through the pleasant village along the High Street. The club play in an enclosed ground at Cotlandswick Playing Fields just off the main street. The ground was locked, but I got some reasonable views of the facilities. 

As in general with many grounds of this level, it mainly consisted of flat grass and standing areas. This venue was nicely enclosed by large bushes and trees to give it a slightly more enclosed feel. The clubhouse and changing rooms were behind the near goal. A small cover was on the far side touchline with a slightly larger seated stand opposite.

There was certainly scope and room for further development should the club wish to progress further, although there was unlikely to be demand in terms of attendance figures.

London Colney 2 Hendon 2 (Tuesday 17th July 2018) Pre-Season Friendly (att: c60)

It had been all change for Hendon since the end of the previous season, with all the players and management from the previous play-off campaign having moved on. New boss Jimmy Gray was attempting to assemble a new squad from scratch.

He’d warned me that the match would be featuring triallists and fringe players as he worked his way through a long list to see who would be signed to play in the unfamiliar territory of the Southern League Premier Division South.

Simon Cope was working in London and keen to head to the game and continue his Hendon adventures. It would be a new ground tick for both of us. I’d managed to fix us a lift with Don's fan Lee Cousins.

It was another hot day during a heatwave that had seen matches postponed because of the condition of the pitches. I’d been on early shift and met Simon and Lee at Stanmore at 6.30pm for the journey north.

The discussion in the car was about how we saw the new season, what had happened for everyone to leave, and where the new management team would recruit from. There was certainly plenty to ponder as we arrived at Cotlandswick Park.

I’m glad we knew that there was a football match about to take place, or we could have been mistaken for thinking we’d arrived at a wildlife park, such was the colour of the pitch. Not that anyone could do anything about it without using huge amounts of water for many hours.

We got parked up down the side of the pitch and headed for the clubhouse, where we quickly discovered that the Guinness out of cans was a better option than draught lager as a decent turnout of Greens fans began to gather.

Admission was by donation as a Colney official went around with a tin so that he could pay the ref. This looked like bad news for the linesman, who had a good laugh with us when we told him.

The Don's players not involved were training on a field outside the ground before returning to watch the match, which would feature twenty of their teammates in green. The starting eleven kicked down the slope in the first half.

Young centre forward Dylan Kearney soon impressed with his first touch and awareness, and he was involved as the visitors took the lead on just four minutes through Matty Newman.

However, the lead was short-lived as the hosts capitalised on some iffy defending to equalise two minutes later. The pitch wasn’t helping either side's passing. Colney were certainly up for the challenge and weren’t reluctant to put a challenge in.

It was a nice convivial atmosphere among the fans who even touched on the subject of Love Island. It was that kind of evening. Hendon played some nice stuff, but it was always going to be disjointed as some players met each other for the first time.

Dons regained the lead on twenty-one minutes, when the impressive Cole Brown finished off a nice move. They held on to the lead until half time, when we refreshed and then went across to the other side of the pitch by the seats.

Seven substitutes were made just before the hour mark. One of them, Lewis Hobbs, was initially listed as a triallist, but would later sign for the club. He immediately stood out at right back with his reading of the game and excellent distribution.

Two more of the replacements, keeper Daniel Purdue, midfielder William Murphy and defender Riccardo Alexander-Greenaway, were members of Hendon’s under-18s team from the previous season; just about the only continuity at the club aside from officials and the fans.

Colney drew level on seventy-three minutes, when a trialist defender lost the ball when pushing up and leaving the rest of the defence exposed. The marauding forwards were to make no mistake in making it 2-2.

Despite plenty of possession, Hendon couldn’t force a winner. We chatted to a couple of the players as we made our way back to the car. It had been a good workout in testing conditions.

Simon and I ended the evening with a quick pint back at JJ Moons in Kingsbury. It had been a decent evening out and another new ground for our tally.