Bowers & Pitsea

Bowers & Pitsea FC is a non-league football club from Pitsea in Essex, that was formed in 1946 by Bert Salmon as Bowers United. The team started out life as members of the Thurrock and Thameside Combination playing at a ground where Pitsea Market now stands.

United won the competition in 1958-59 with Bert Salmon being tragically killed a few months later. His brother Len Salmon moved to the club from Pitsea United. The club progressed to the Essex Olympian League for the 1966-67 campaign a year after moving into a new ground at Gun Meadow.

Len Salmon worked hard for the club raising funds and had managed to purchase the Gun Meadow ground from landlords; the Howard family in 1962. His foresight would pay dividends as the venue had have a Compulsory Purchase Order placed on it in 1972.

The government wanted to build a by-pass extension to the A13 road; which had been originally mooted in 1959. The money received from the deal allowed Bowers to search for a new home; which was quickly sorted.

The club moved into Crown Avenue, with the new ground being opened in October 1973 with a match against a former Tottenham Hotspur all star side. Bowers became members of the Essex Senior League for the start of the 1974-75 season.

The league title followed in 1980-81 under manager Malcolm Slater before finishing as runners-up in 1983-84. A second Essex Senior League title arrived in 1998-99 with Tony Cross in charge of the team. The club didn’t apply for promotion; preferring to remain at county level.

Len Salmon died in August 2000, at which point the ground was renamed in his honour. The club was extended in 2004 when they absorbed Pitsea FC to take on their current title. Pitsea had been a successful club in the Vange & District Sunday League and the Basildon Sunday League.

In the summer of 2014, Rob Small the successful manager of Essex Olympian League side Southminster St Leonards was appointed as manager. He led his side to a league runners-up position in his first season in charge. This was a mere aperitif for what was to come in 2015-16.

Bowers & Pitsea were crowned Essex Senior League champions and were promoted to the second tier of the Isthmian League as well as partaking in a fine FA Vase run; going all the way to the semi-finals before losing on aggregate to eventual winners Morpeth Town.

In 2016-17 Bowers finished just outside the play-off spots of Isthmian League Division One North but reached them by way of a third-place finish in 2017-18. The team lost out in the semi-finals in a local derby against Canvey Island.

After regathering the side were crowned as champions to be promoted to the Premier Division in 2018-19. The 2019-20 season saw Bowers beat Lewes and gain revenge on Canvey on their way to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup.

Bowers were defeated at home by Chichester City; who would then get a bye to the second round after being given a bye following the expulsion of Bury. In May 2022 James Collins arrived as the new manager to replace Rob Small after his eight seasons in charge.

The team was relegated in 2022-23 but fought back by finishing in the playoffs of Division North the following season. Victories over Felixstowe & Walton United and then Brentwood Town on penalties saw Bowers return to the Premier Division at the first time of asking.

Bowers & Pitsea FC will play in the Isthmian League Premier Division in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Bowers & Pitsea 3 Folkestone Invicta 1 (Saturday 14^th December 2019) Isthmian League Premier Division (att: 159)

I’d wisely taken a couple of extra days off work in the aftermath of the General Election to recover and enjoy the Friday night at Charlton Athletic v Hull City as well as being able to accept a lift to Poole Town against Hendon on Saturday.

The weather had been pretty poor throughout the week and my pal Lee informed me that he’d been given the heads up by a mate on the south coast that the notorious pitch at Poole would be unlikely to be fit and that it had been pouring down overnight.

Sure enough, I received a text around 9.30am to confirm the postponement. I needed a plan B. There were several options, but I had one eye on the weather and the possibility of being potentially stranded somewhere with no other opportunities on hand.

Not in the best of moods, I resorted to some cheering-up therapy by way of a full English at the Bridge Café in West Hampstead. Immediately the world seemed slightly brighter, despite the cold windy conditions outside.

It was a bit early to set out anywhere. I wasn’t keen on an extended pub stay as I’d had a good sample over the previous couple of days and had a 6.30am start at work the following day. The British Library looked like an excellent sanctuary.

I’d never been in there in my life but found myself benefiting from the warm building and seating area twice in the previous three days. You never know when such facilities will be shut down?

Twitter was my pal as I started to narrow down my targets. Royston Town in the Trophy was very tempting. A potential shock and guaranteed crowd, but a couple of Tweets slightly put me off, as they thought they’d be getting some rain on an already muddy pitch.

Games at Chichester City and Phoenix Sports were also up there, but in the end, a trip to Essex came out as the winner. I’d nearly gone to the FA Cup tie between Bowers and Chichester earlier in the season.

I wanted to visit a new ground. Bowers would be the six hundredth different venue I’d paid to watch football on covering nineteen different countries. The artificial playing surface also guaranteed that the game would be on.

At Liverpool Street, I received a scare as a flurry of cancellations appeared on the board. Fortunately, the tree that had fallen on the track affected the line via Billericay to Southend. I was good to go for the service to Basildon.

It looked a bit of a hike from Pitsea station to the ground and several sources had indicated that a decent bus service would serve me better from the larger town. I was also interested to see what Basildon was like on my first visit.

It hadn’t looked particularly glamorous when I’d passed through on the train. In its huge favour, it was the place that had produced Depeche Mode, Yazoo and much of the rave scene. It’s not all about looks; which is probably as well in my case.

I found a gritty original new town, no longer new but sprawling like a bigger version of Stevenage. An underpass from the railway led me to the bus station under the market building. I found the right bay for the number 5 service towards Pitsea.

I’d purchased a return to Wilsner and settled to listen to the end of the Liverpool v Wolves game on the radio. The journey took just less than twenty minutes. After gathering my bearings I saw the floodlights peeping through the gaps between the houses.

A few minutes later I was by the turnstiles, having walked straight past the entrance to the clubhouse. I really should have asked if access was from inside the ground but paid my tenner admission. I bought the £2 programme from a lady shivering at a table.

Unsure of what to expect before I set out, I knew that The Len Salmon Stadium had enjoyed some work on it over the previous couple of years. I hadn’t imagined that it would be such a good little ground. I was immediately impressed.

An old cover in three sections ran the full length behind the near goal. A new structure with tip-up seating and a flat covered standing area was down the entrance side. Opposite was a combination of flat standing and a couple of small seated stands.

Past the main stand were a few steps of open terracing, with the far end consisting of open flat standing and a modern stepped cover behind the goal. Unfortunately, there was no access to the clubhouse, but that was my own stupid fault.

A cup of tea and bacon roll were purchased from “Bowers Burgers” near the entrance before I sought somewhere out of the way of the strong cold wind which was blowing towards the gates across the flat landscape.

Invicta arrived as league leaders having defeated nearest challengers Horsham in the last minute seven days previously. The hosts were towards the bottom third in the standings. The Kent side brought a decent following of support with them.

Bowers came flying out of the traps. Their number five and skipper Lewis Manor played as centre forward and immediately created an aerial threat from a corner before Jamie Dicks fired just past the post.

However, Invicta responded and took the lead on five minutes. Kieron McCann played a perfect pass into the stride of Scott Heard who smashed his shot past keeper Callum Chafer and in off the underside of the bar.

Manor saw his header from another corner cleared off the line by scorer Heard while Folkestone looked dangerous whenever they went forward. I’d taken a position near the visiting fans behind the goal and was thoroughly enjoying the action.

Bradley Warner headed a couple of efforts over for Bowers while Jerson Dos Santos was denied by a good challenge at the other end. Ira Jackson was also causing problems for the home defence with his decent movement.

The scores were levelled on twenty-four minutes. Warner hit the bar with his effort before Manor followed in, to head home despite the efforts of Josh Vincent to clear off the line. Back down the other end, Ronnie Dolan was close with a thirty-yarder.

It had been an absorbing first half, made better when I noticed a gate had been opened to gain access to the bar. I was straight in at the break for half of Theakstons and a whisky; purely for medicinal reasons of course.

A Quentin Monville cross caused confusion in the visitors box a minute after the restart. The ball evaded goalie Henry Newcombe but defender Matt Newman was on hand to clear. Newcombe tipped an effort from the resulting corner onto the top of the bar.

Folkestone halftime sub, Sam Hasler, fired off a thirty-yard shot from which Chafer made a superb diving save. Dos Santos fired wide as the table toppers looked to regain the lead. Chafer saved from the same man before he pulled off another top save from a Heard shot.

Chafer went on to make further stops with his feet from Jackson after denying the former Hull City u23 forward Johan Ter Horst; who I’d seen in action a couple of years previously for the Tigers in a midweek afternoon game at Millwall.

Those were the moments that changed the direction of the game for me. The custodian had kept his team in the game and from there his colleagues responded to seize their opportunity.

With seventeen minutes left on the clock, Bowers went ahead to the delight of their vocal fans behind the goal. Newman complained about being penalised for a foul. The resulting free kick from Ben Sartain was met by the towering powerful Manor who headed home.

Newcombe and some colleagues harangued the ref who was having none of it. The local youths took great delight in the actions of the visiting players and gave the stopper some stick for the remainder of the game.

The temperatures continued to plummet. I continued to pace up and down on the side terrace while trying to mobilise my finger to keep in tune with scores from elsewhere. Folkestone tried to respond. Jackson shot over and Hasler was denied by Chafer.

The visitors threw men forward to try and salvage a point as a couple of home players were cautioned for delaying tactics. The ref was obviously unimpressed as seven minutes of stoppage time were added on to the astonishment of the hosts.

However, they sealed the match in the very final minute when Dicks broke. He squared to the man of the match Manor who helped the ball on to Sartain who made no mistake. The final whistle was met with great home celebrations.

I’d thoroughly enjoyed a proper game of football. Bowers came across as a traditional hard-working Essex club. They were certainly ones I’d be keeping an eye on. Invicta more than played their part and I expected that they’d be there or thereabouts at the season's end.

Poor old Folkestone. I’d now seen them play away three times. They’d drawn 3-3 at Hendon after being 3-0 up with ten minutes remaining and then lost 4-1 in the play-offs to the same opponents. I’d just seen them ship another three even when they were top of the league. Apologies!

My bus wasn’t too long in showing up, so I easily made the 5.40 train back to Fenchurch Street, from where I was straight home for food and sleep with the electric blanket playing a blinder of its own!