History of Gloucester City AFC
GLOUCESTER CITY AFC HISTORY
The club was formed in March 1883, but the first recorded match came on the 2nd January 1886 against Eastville [Bristol Rovers) and resulted in a 0-1 defeat for Gloucester and was refereed by Gloucestershire's own cricketing legend W.G.Grace. The club became founder members of the Gloucester and District League.
After the end of the First World War in 1918 most of the players who'd been with City joined Gloucester YMCA and by 1925 they had assumed the name of Gloucester City and become founder members of the Northern Senior League. In 1934-5 after winning both the Cup and League City turned professional, joining the Birmingham Combination and moved to a new stadium in Longlevens. They won the Tillotson cup for being the best club in the combination and then had former Chelsea & Wolves striker Reg Weaver blow away all records with his 78 goals in the 1937-8 season.
Moving on, in 1939 the club played Southern League football for the very first time albeit in a restricted wartime competition as they took part in the West section. After the war City rejoined the Southern League and have been members ever since (a record only bettered by Chelmsford City). The competition was fierce and it was no surprise that it took until the 1955-6 season for Gloucester to taste success with their legendary 5-1 League Cup victory over Yeovil after losing the first leg 1-4. The attendance record was set at Longlevens in 1952 when Stan Myers scored both goals to beat a full strength Tottenham Hotspur side 2-1 in front of 10,500 spectators.
In 1964 the club moved grounds again, from Longlevens to the massive Horton Road stadium closer to the centre of Gloucester. It appears that they had a barren spell up until 1981-2 when a sixth place finish in the Midland division was enough to clinch a place in the reformed Premier. Also they were runners up in the League Cup, going down 1-2 to Wealdstone (who included future England captain Stuart Pearce). Despite Kim Casey scoring 40 goals the club were relegated back to the Midland division in 1984-5, where they stayed until Brian Godfrey was appointed manager in 1988. In the meantime the club moved grounds again, this time to Hempsted and Meadow Park. The Horton Road ground became a housing estate which now boasts the names of City legends; [Stan] Myers Road, [Dicky] Etheridge Place and [Ron] Coltman Close among others.
In 1988 Chairman Geoff Hester wanted to appoint a new manager and after an exhaustive search found his man, former Aston Villa and Wales player Brian Godfrey. The new manager went about trying to assemble a squad capable of fighting their way out of the Midland Division. Lance Morrison, Steve Talboys, Wayne Noble, John Shaw, Nigel Green and Brian Hughes were among those who walked to the Championship but the most important signing came just before Christmas when Chris Townsend joined us from Cheltenham Town. Towner went on to score 30 goals to leave his mark on the club. It was a very competitive league and although a look at the final table would suggest that we strolled to the title it was actually the penultimate game of the season at Kings Lynn that saw us crowned Champions.
The next big achievement in the Godfrey years was the famous FA Cup run to Cardiff. Mangotsfield Utd (4-0), Barry Town (2-2, 2-0), Worcester City (4-2), Folkestone (1-0) and Dorchester Town (1-0) all came and went before we suffered heartbreak in the replay after being 2-0 up at Ninian Park with just five minutes to go. Then in the winter of 1990 Gloucester saw it's worst snow for the first time in a long time, and when it thawed the River Severn overwhelmed all of the local flood plains. The knock on effect saw the Sudmeadow flood, causing incredible scenes at Meadow Park as the pitch was submerged under four feet of water and the whole ground was out of commission for over a month. However, the first game back at Meadow Park saw us defeat Gosport Borough 9-0 (with Towner getting five).
The 1990-91 was one of the most exciting that we've ever seen at Meadow Park. It all started when Hester stepped down and was replaced by Les Alderman, a Bath based businessman. Godfrey had held onto most of his squad from the previous season and added quality players to it, Jeff Sherwood (£15,000 from Yeovil), Lee Rogers, Derek Dawkins, Keith Knight (£7000 from Reading), Jason Eaton (£10,000 from Bristol City) and Steve Fergusson & Brendan Hackett (£25,000 from Worcester City) were just some of the players who bolstered the squad. Due to the previous seasons Cup exploits we had been made exempt until the fourth qualifying round, where we faced Farnborough Town away and got hammered 1-4. Little did we know then what an important part they would play in our season, as we fast forward on to the last day of the season at Bromsgrove.... On the previous Tuesday we'd needed to beat VS Rugby at home to go top of the pile but we could only manage a 2-2 draw, so it was all on the last day of the season at the Victoria Ground. Farnborough headed up to Atherstone needing to win, and went 0-1 down in the first half to the delight of the thousand or so travelling City fans. Just when our game looked as though it might end in stalemate, substitute John Freegard got his head to Jeff Sherwood's long free kick and minutes later we'd won. In the meantime the Hampshire side had scored, but it wasn't enough, we were on the pitch celebrating the Championship and promotion to the Conference. But all we'd heard were premature radio reports from Atherstone, Farnborough had actually scored a winner three minutes before the end of the game and they were promoted instead of us.
Into the next season, one that promised to start where the previous one had left off, and the bombshell hit us that Les Alderman had left the club. The squad was ripped apart, Fergusson and Hackett went to Telford, Lee Rogers and Jeff Sherwood went and Brian Godfrey was sacked, and replaced by his assistant Steve Millard. Ollie only lasted three months in what was a disastrous spell that saw him hardly keep the same starting eleven and basically have to start from scratch after Geoff Hancocks and Brian Hughes left the club in support of Godfrey. In February Brian was re-appointed to the hot seat and started to turn things around again, however we all knew that the title challenging days of Alderman were a long way off. The club survived the next few seasons under the guidance of Chairman George Irvine, but even the Roaduser boss knew that the Tigers couldn't continue this way. The club had crippling debts and were about to fold when former Moreton Town owner Keith Gardner stepped in.
With Gardner came razzamatazz as he did wonders for Gloucester City with his magical PR machine! Gardner sacked Godfrey again and appointed former Cheltenham and Trowbridge boss John Murphy as the club entered possibly the most exciting period in their history. Keith did more than his fair share of work in putting Gloucester City on the map, some would say he did too much! He made a deal with Carlsberg Tetley that enabled the City to buy the old Fieldings club and football pitches. To be fair he turned the whole 'Meadow Park' area into a footballing centre, and he had a great idea to develop the ground into an all-seater stadium and add a leisure centre, ice rink and all weather pitch. His ambitions were matched on the field too, after seeing the club get by with local players, talent was brought in from further a field and the Tigers became a force to be reckoned with. Dave Porter only played a handful of games but will be remembered for the part he played in the 1-0 victory over rivals Cheltenham Town at Whaddon Road in 1994. However it soon became apparent that Murphy didn't have what it took to turn a good side into Champions and was sacked in March 1996. Former West Ham and Bristol City striker Leroy Rosenior took over and had to virtually rebuild the team from scratch after most of the players walked out in the wake of Murphy's dismissal.
Dale Watkins was signed from Rushden & Diamonds for the 1996-7 season, with Adie Mings from Bath and record signing David Holmes being persuaded back after the Murphy furore. This formed one of the most potent front lines in non-league football and it was no surprise to see the Tigers beat all comers. Despite having to play manager Leroy Rosenior in goal against Kingstonian in their first game in the FA Trophy, City managed to reach the semi final before being beaten by Dagenham & Redbridge. The cup run proved to be a thorn in the side for City as they had to play three games a week to claw back games in hand and eventually lost out to Cheltenham in the race for second spot (after Champions Gresley Rovers had been denied promotion due to their ground).
Since then the club has struggled to keep its head above water and the club's weekly playing budget was slashed. Considering that the club had seen just four different managers in the 1990's (Brian Godfrey, Steve Millard, John Murphy and Leroy Rosenior), the turn of the century saw another three come and go. First Brian Hughes tried his luck in a move that was very popular among the majority of the supporters. He didn't last as the playing budget was cut and this proved to be the catalyst that saw the club relegated. Then Tommy Callinan took over in a player/manager role and left at the end of the 2000/01 season. The third to try his hand, and present incumbent was Chris Burns. He was tempted back to Meadow Park from Forest Green and brought with him a largely untried bunch of young players to fit in with the very limited wage structure. It took the side a while to find it's feet, and they had some real setbacks too (namely the 1-7 home defeat at the hands of Bedworth Utd), but have begun to look the part.
As the management bandwagon rolled on, just before Christmas 2000 Meadow Park was struck another hammer blow when the Severn burst its banks for the second time in a decade. This time the flood water did more damage than before because it reached just under seven feet high, and also managed to get inside the changing rooms ruining whatever stood in it's way. The club was unable to hold matches at the ground for more than six weeks as the environmental health inspector ruled that due to the filthy content of the water, Meadow Park wasn't fit for public population. The lack of revenue for the club almost saw it go under and it meant that due to non-payment of players several walked out on the club.
However, in November 2001 ex-director Colin Gardner returned to the club to take over the Chairmanship. On the pitch things were looking up with new manager Chris Burns moulding his former City youth team into a force to be reckoned with. A mid table finish surprised many, especially those that had suggested that we'd finish in the bottom two.
If ever the feeling that the club was bouncing back, then the 2002/03 season proved it. Off the field, a deal was struck between the club and Eamonn McGurk, where the latter bought the ground and took on the majority of the clubs debts. Financially, the club actually made a trading profit for the first time and were within reach of wiping out all of the historical debts. To add to the upturn, on the field Burns' young team upset a lot of the more fancied challengers, brought on some of the younger players and reached the quarter finals of the FA Trophy. The run included memorable victories away at league leaders Merthyr Tydfil, then two fantastic wins at Conference sides Woking and Southport. Sadly, Aylesbury of the Ryman League proved to be too big of a challenge and we bowed out. In the league, a fifth placed finish was a remarkable achievement and a great stepping-stone to launch a challenge for the future.
The 2003/04 season saw further progress with the Tigers finishing second in the Western Division and gaining promotion to the Premier Division. At the end of the season Colin Gardner stepped down as Chairman and Ken Turner took over in an acting Role. Ken continued until he was forced to step down from his various positions at the club in July 2005 through personal reasons. The club continued to seek a successor and in October 2005 in stepped Stuart Pike to help steer the club. Stuart has a wealth of experience of the League and non-league game, having been Chairman and Commercial Manager of Hellenic League side Fairford Town for three years before joining Swindon Town Football Club Sales & Marketing team. At Swindon Mr Pike was responsible for running the box Office, distribution & marketing of season tickets and the marketing of various Club related products, also maintaining the IT for Club ticketing purposes. He left Swindon Town Football Club in July 2004.
January 2006 saw further developments at the club. Both Manager Chris Burns and Assistant Manager Keith Knight resigned their posts, while Chairman Stuart Pike resigned his position due to severe work commitments. Chris and Keith were replaced on January 5th by Neil Mustoe and Adie Harris respectively, in caretaker positions. Just a week later and the club, at very short notice, gained the services of Tim Harris (from Merthyr Tydfil) and Chris Smith as Manager and Assistant Manager respectively. After guiding the team away from the relegation spots and to safety, Tim achieved a fantastic achievement as the club could not increase his playing budget. In June 2006 Chris Hill was appointed Club Chairman.
Summer of 2007 saw Tim Harris strengthen his squad, whilst still maintaining a tight and affordable budget, and things looked set fair for a challenge in 2007-08. Then disaster struck in July, when the devastating floods once again engulfed Meadow Park and left the club with a stadium under eight foot of water and sewage. Lesser clubs would have been destroyed by such an event, especially given the fact that City had no flood insurance, because insurers specifically excluded floods because of the grounds position and history. A price of over £100,000 was predicted for the clear-up and to repair damage, with no guarantee that the same would not happen again in a few months time, so the decision was taken to leave Meadow Park, and City will now play their home games at Forest Green Rovers fantastic New Lawn Stadium for the coming season. The clubs Executive remain committed to bringing football back to Gloucester as soon as possible, and are working with the local authorities to ensure that this happens. Meanwhile all remain focussed on delivering success on the field of play.
