SHIREHAMPTON FC

Shirehampton FC began life as Kingsweston Star playing friendlies where ever and whenever games could be arranged. Then in 1952 the name was changed to Penpole United and the club was elected to play in the Church of England league, their ‘home’ pitch on the downs.

In 1953 the team moved closer to their home of Shirehampton and started playing at the Lamplighters Playing Field on the banks of the Avon in Shirehampton. Highlights of these times were bruising local Derby clashes against St George Easton and Gordano where the opposition and large amounts of Supporters would arrive on the near-by Pill Shirehampton ferry.

In 1954 the team moved to its present pitch at Penpole Lane and the team became Shirehampton Sports. By this time the team were competing in the Bristol and District League and later in the early 70’s dropping the Sports from their title.

In the early 70’s Shirehampton FC were prevented from progressing into the County League football by bureaucracy and inter club politics. So to achieve their senior football ambitions they applied to the Somerset Senior league and were accepted into Division 1. Under the guidance of John Watkins they achieved promotion to the premier division. Subsequent seasons saw a precession of managers, resulting in a very unsettled period.

Stability came in the 90’s in the shape of Pete McCall who had been a player with the club in the 70’s. During his 10 year reign he achieved League cup winners and then at that time probably the greatest achievement in the clubs history the Somerset Senior Premier Division winners in 1999-2000 season. This was followed up in the 2000 – 2001 season where we finished as Somerset Senior runners up, building his successful team with local talent and youngsters brought through from youth football.

At one time Pete’s side boasted no fewer than 4 pairs of brothers during the 1997-1998 season! Unfortunately during this successful period, Shirehampton FC’s progression was prevented by League ground grading, and the Penpole Lane facilities were deemed not to be at the standard to support Western (Screwfix) League status.

Relegation from the Somerset County Premier Division for the first team and relegation from the Bristol Premier Combination for the Reserves in the 2001-2002 season capped a miserable year.

Early 2003 Pete McCall was to return to the club again and take on the Chairman’s role completing a remarkable player / manager/ chairman treble.

Once again success came back in the 2005-2006 season where the first team won the Somerset County Division 1 title beating Frome Town Reserves on the final game of the season at Frome to pip the hosts to the title and the Third team beating Hallen B in the GFA minor cup and finishing runners up in Division 4 of the Bristol & District league.

The following 2 seasons we successfully consolidated our Premier division status with mid table finishes.

Success returned to the club in Season 2008-2009 coinciding with the return of player Micky Tanner who was assisted by Ex Bristol City team mate Wayne Bray ending the season as Premier Division runners up to Bridgewater Town Reserves and winning the League cup final against Taunton Blackbrook 5-3.

The following season 2009/2010 didn’t live up to the previous one, however the 2010-2011 went one better and completed the double with Premier Division Championship and League Cup winners beating Ashton and Backwell in the final (1-0) The league season was all the more remarkable with the team scoring an amazing 118 goals with significant goal contributions from Nick Alexander (17), Scott Bamford (18), Jack Barnes (16), Tony Beecham (20), Danny Copland (18) and Dan Griffiths (10) ending one of the finest seasons in our history up to that date.

2011-2013 saw top 10 finishes in the premier division but success returned in 2014-2015

Season 2014-2015 was up there in terms of success with ex player Tony Beecham returning as Manager with Rob Sage as his assistant, steering the First team to the brink of an incredible treble by winning the Premier Division Championship, runners up in the League cup to Bridgewater Town Res (narrowly missing out losing 4-2 on pens) and also reaching the final of the GFA Challenge Trophy, narrowly missing out 2-0 to Bristol Manor Farm who were 2 steps higher in the football pyramid at that time. Quite a season!!

Following Tony Beecham’s decision to seek higher managerial positions elsewhere, Chairman Pete McCall stepped back in to the Managers role in 2015-2016 who was assisted by Ex Bristol City Player Lee Rogers leading the First team to a top 4 finish and the following season 2016-2017 finishing Runners up to Watchet Town pipping Nailsea and Tickenham to 2nd spot on the final game of the season. This season was also successful for the Reserve Team managed by Kyle Davies (Dennz) and Jack Harding, finishing runners up in the B&D senior Division to Stapleton and gaining promotion and a return to the Bristol Premier Combination league after an absence of 15 years.

Yet another Somerset County League cup win came our way in 2017-2018 where we were winners V Timsbury Athletic winning 5-2 with Scott Bamford scoring a Hat-trick.

With Pete McCall stepping down in 2019, Assistant Lee Rogers took charge and sat comfortably top of the Somerset Premier League table in March 2020, when due to the Covid19 pandemic the season was curtailed. Could this have been our 4th league title? Some at the club think so and will be remembered as our ghost title!

Due to the FA having a major re-shuffle within the football pyramid, lateral movement at step 7 for season 2020-2021 saw us move from the Somerset County league our home since 1975 to the Gloucestershire County league. In the 45 years competing in the Somerset league we spent only a hand full of years playing outside of the Premier Division mostly finishing top 10 or better.

The move to the Gloucestershire County league gave everyone at the club a lift and after two disrupted seasons, a decision was made to ground share with our neighbours Bristol Manor Farm at the Creek (while our long protracted application for facility upgrades at Penpole Lane rumble on) with a view to finally obtaining Step 6 Western league football (our aim since our first Somerset title back in 2000). Liam Greening was appointed the First Team Manager in the summer of 2021 bringing lots of Western League experience to the club.

After being top of the Gloucester County League for most of the 2021/2022 season we missed out on the title on the final game of the season seeing us finish runners up to Wick. With news coming in June 2022 that the facilities at Wick did not meet step 6 requirements, we were informed that we were to be promoted to step 6 football in the Toolstation Western League with the ground share at Bristol Manor Farm looking a shrewd decision by Pete McCall, we had finally achieved Pete’s vision.

2022 saw the club celebrate their 70 year anniversary in style when we played our first ever step 6 game on 30th July 2022 in the Toolstation Western League verses Longwell Green Sports a narrow defeat on the day could not dampen a celebration on our achievement and 70 years in existence as a Football club.

The 2022/23 season very nearly saw back to back promotions for the first team after beating Wells City in the semi final playoff only to agonisingly and narrowly miss out with a 2-1 defeat to Longwell Green Sports in the final. The reserves under the leadership of Joe Wheeler also narrowly missed out on promotion finishing 1 point off a promotion place. However there was success for the A team under leadership of Kyle Davies and Ben Purdy with a double promotion to the B&D div 3.