Slough Town F.C.

Full name

Slough Town Football Club

Nickname(s)

The Rebels

Founded

1893 (as Slough)

Ground

Holloways Park,
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire (Groundshare with Beaconsfield SYCOB F.C.)

Capacity

3,500 (200 seated)

Chairman

Steve Easterbrook

Manager

Neil Baker / Jon Underwood

League

Southern League Premier Division

2015–16

Southern League Premier Division, 17th

Website

Club home page

Home colours

Away colours

Slough Town Football Club is an English semi-professional football club. The club was officially founded in 1890 after the amalgamation of three local clubs, Swifts, Slough Albion and Young Men's Friendly Society, who between them forged a new club, Slough F.C.. The club is a senior non-League football club representing Slough, England.

Nicknamed "The Rebels", the team currently plays in the Southern Football League Premier Division.

History

Slough F.C. was originally formed in 1890 and initially played in the Southern Alliance alongside the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Windsor & Eton before later moving on to the Great Western Suburban League. In 1921 it attempted to join the Isthmian League but lost out to Wycombe Wanderers in the voting. Instead Slough chose to join the Spartan League.

In 1936 the owners of the club's ground, The Dolphin Stadium, sold up to a greyhound racing consortium, which ordered the football club to vacate the stadium three years later. After being forced to groundshare with Maidenhead United for several years, the club agreed to a merge with Slough Centre F.C. to return to a ground in their home town. The new club took the name Slough United F.C.

After The Second World War Slough Utd was reluctant to rejoin the Spartan League and led a breakaway movement to form a new league, which became the Corinthian League. It was from this that the club derived its nickname of "The Rebels". Shortly after this the two clubs which had merged to form Slough United separated once again, with the former Slough F.C. continuing under the new name of Slough Town F.C.

Slough Town won the Corinthian League in 1950–51 but in 1964 the league folded and Slough, along with many other former Corinthian clubs, joined an expanded Athenian League. The Rebels were champions of this league on three occasions, with the third win earning promotion to the Isthmian League in 1973. During the 1980s they were league champions on two occasions, the second of which brought promotion to the Football Conference. Slough lasted four seasons at this level, were relegated back to the Isthmian League, bounced back at the first attempt, and then played three more seasons of Conference football. In 1998 the consortium which had bought the club out of receivership seven years earlier decided that they were not prepared to pay for ground improvements required to remain in the Conference, and so the club was demoted back to the Isthmian League despite having finished in 8th place.

Further relegation to the Isthmian League Division One followed in 2000–01 but the club regained its Premier Division status in 2003–04 and remained there until the end of the 2006–07 season, when they finished bottom and conceded over 120 goals. In the 2004–05 season, Slough knocked Walsall of Football League One out of the FA Cup. Highlights of the game were shown on Match of the Day, though because of the team sharing the Stag Meadow ground at the time, the programme showed overhead shots of Windsor instead of Slough when introducing the rarely featured team. Slough transferred over to the Southern Football League Division One South & West for the 2007–08 season, where they finished 21st out of 22 teams. Although initially relegated (for the second year running), they were one of the teams given a provisional reprieve after Halifax Town went into administration.^[1]

In the season of 2004–05 Slough Town beat Walsall to reach the 2nd round of the FA Cup however they then lost to Yeading. Slough Town were also the Isthmian League Cup winners in 2004–05 after they beat Hampton & Richmond Borough 3–1 in the final with 2 goals from Ian Hodges and 1 from Josias Carbon to help them secure the win and the silverware.

Over the next two seasons, and now playing in the Southern Football League Division One Midlands,^[2] Slough's performance continued to improve. In the 2009–10 season, Slough Town finish 5th in the table, qualifying the team for the promotion play-off matches. Having beaten second-placed Hitchin Town 2–1 in the play-off semi-final, Slough lost 4–0 to Chesham United in the final, meaning they had to remain in the same division for the 2010–11 season. Once again they finished 5th in the 2010–11 season, but lost to Hitchin Town in the play-off semi-final 4–1.

Having come close to promotion to the Premier Division in the last few seasons, including two play-off final defeats, Slough parted company with manager Steve Bateman following the 2012–13 season after four years at the helm, the last of which saw them miss out on the play-offs by a solitary point. The club looked to take a new direction in 2013–14 and appointed Neil Baker and Jon Underwood, the management duo who had taken league rivals Godalming Town to the play-offs in the previous season. With Godalming forced to relocate to the South & West Division following their failure to win the play-offs, the majority of their squad decided to follow Baker and Underwood to Slough. In their very first season, the new management team steered the club to promotion via the play-offs. Slough claimed a 3-0 victory at Rugby Town in the semi-final before winning the play-off final against Kettering Town in front of 2,331 at Kettering’s temporary home of Latimer Park on 5 May 2014. Slough trailed 0-2 at half-time before staging a second half comeback. Two goals from Johnnie Dyer brought the Rebels level before James McClurg scored the goal that ultimately returned Slough Town to the third tier of non-league football after several years away.

Ground

Slough Town currently play their home games at Holloways Park, Windsor Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, HP9 2SE.

For many years since the 1930s, Slough Town played at the Dolphin Stadium, just to the east of the town centre. From 1973 Slough Town played at the Wexham Park Stadium. At the end of the 2002–03 season, financial disagreements with the stadium's owners led to the club's eviction. The Stadium is still in existence, but has since fallen into a state of serious disrepair.

During the next four seasons (2003–04 to 2006–07) the club was based in Windsor, ground-sharing with Windsor & Eton at their Stag Meadow ground.

In the summer of 2007, the club agreed a three-year ground-share with Beaconsfield SYCOB. This was extended to cover the 2010–11 season,^[3] and, as of the 2012–13 season, is still continuing.

Since June 2009, Slough Town have been progressing a proposal submitted to Slough Borough Council for permission to build a new stadium within the Borough of Slough. The proposed location for the development is the Arbour Vale school site on Stoke Road, to the north of the town. In addition to a state-of-the-art stadium, the plans include affordable housing and sports fields.^[4]^[5] An artist's impression of the new ground was released in March 2012.^[6]

The stadium name will be Arbour Park, with up to 320 seats, meeting FA Regulations.

Preparations are still under way to submit a planning request. It was hoped that the Stadium would be ready by Autumn 2013, so that Slough Town could move back home for the 13/14 season. As of October 2012, a planning application had not been submitted, although Slough Borough Council announced its plan to place the Arbour Park development into the Slough Regeneration Partnership to assist the planning process.^[7]

Current squad

March 2016.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.		Position	Player
		GK	Mark Scott
		DF	Guy Hollis
		DF	Sean Fraser
		DF	Dan Hicks
		DF	Jhai Dhillon
		DF	Brad Hewitt
		DF	Adam New
		MF	Adrian Sear
		MF	Jake Parsons

No.		Position	Player
		MF	Nathan Webb
		MF	Warren Harris
		MF	Ryan Hope
		MF	Gurkan Gokmen
		MF	George Short
		MF	Joe Grant
		FW	Scott Harris
		FW	Lewis Putman
		FW	Lee Barney

International players

In the 2007–08 season, Slough's first team included several international players – something which is very rare for the level at which STFC are currently playing. Three players, Jermaine Gumbs, Romell Gumbs and Brian Connor, won their second caps for Anguilla in a World Cup qualifying match against El Salvador in March 2008.^[8] For the 2009–10 season, the squad included another Anguillan international player, Roy Gumbs.

Slough Town vs Hampton & Richmond Borough in the Isthmian League Cup final in 2005.

Club records

Record League Win: 17–0 v Railway Clearing House, Saturday 4 March 1922
Record Cup Win: 16–0 v Wolverton, Saturday 7 December 1935
Record League Defeat: 9–0 v AFC Wimbledon, Saturday, 31 March 2007
Record Cup Defeat: 11–1 v Chesham Town Saturday 5 Feb 1910
Record Transfer Fee Paid: £18,000 for Colin Fielder from Farnborough Town in 1991
Record Transfer Fee Received: £25,000 for Lloyd Owusu from Brentford in 1998

Former players

1. Players that have played/managed in the Football League or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league).
2. Players with full international caps.
3. Players that hold a club record.

Ted Norris - Record goalscorer with 343 goals ^[9]
Micky Droy - 272 appearances for Chelsea
Mark Lee - 44 appearances with Brentford
Terry Reardon - record appearance holder (475) and manager of Slough Town's giant-killing of Millwall in the 1982–83 FA Cup 1st round
Eric Young - 1988 FA Cup Final winner with Wimbledon, 21 appearances for Wales
Trevor Bunting - Record appearance holder for a goalkeeper (416)^[10]
Steve Thompson
Lloyd Owusu
David Kemp - manager in 1992-93 led Slough to highest ever league finish in the 1992–93 Football Conference
Brian McDermott - Manager from 1996 to 1998
Aaron Steele

Sources

Slough Town at the Football Club History Database
Slough United at the Football Club History Database
Slough Centre at the Football Club History Database

References

↑ Corlett, Patrick (15 May 2008). "Slough receive initial reprieve". Slough & Langley Observer. Retrieved 15 May 2008.
↑ The divisions at this level are arranged geographically. After the promotions/relegations have been determined, the league has to ensure that the teams are in the most appropriate division, which can mean some changing between 'South and West' and 'Midland', or vice versa, to balance numbers.
↑ Slough Extend SYCOB stay (accessed 27 May 2010) Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
↑ Corlett, Patrick (18 June 2009). "Slough Town to submit proposals". Slough & Langley Observer.
↑ Mayo, Nick (20 November 2010). "Slough stadium proposal to bring football home". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
↑ Pattinson, Terry (1 March 2012). "Arbour Park: What the stadium and estate will look like". Slough & South Bucks Express. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
↑ Thomas, Gary (12 October 2012). "Arbour Park to be part of the Slough Regeneration Partnership". Slough Town Football Club. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
↑ STFC Official website – Rebels trio win second caps (Accessed 27 May 2010)
↑ http://www.sloughtownfc.net/profile/1668/Ted-Norris
↑ http://www.sloughtownfc.net/profile/1741/Trevor-Bunting

External links

Official site

Official Slough Town FC Website

Unofficial sites

Southern League

Premier Division	Bedworth United Bideford Biggleswade Town Cambridge City Chesham United Chippenham Town Cirencester Town Dorchester Town Dunstable Town Frome Town Histon Hitchin Town Hungerford Town Kettering Town King's Lynn Town Leamington Merthyr Town Paulton Rovers Poole Town Redditch United Slough Town St Neots Town Stratford Town Weymouth

Division One Central	AFC Rushden & Diamonds Arlesey Town Aylesbury Aylesbury United Barton Rovers Beaconsfield Town Bedford Town Chalfont St. Peter Egham Town Fleet Town Godalming Town Hanwell Town Kings Langley Leighton Town North Greenford United Northwood Petersfield Town Potters Bar Town Royston Town St Ives Town Uxbridge Ware

Division One South & West	AFC Totton Banbury United Bashley Bishop's Cleeve Bridgwater Town Burnham Cinderford Town Didcot Town Evesham United Larkhall Athletic Mangotsfield United Marlow North Leigh Shortwood United Slimbridge Swindon Supermarine Taunton Town Tiverton Town Wantage Town Wimborne Town Winchester City Yate Town

Seasons	1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Coordinates: 51°35′36.41″N 0°37′46.89″W / 51.5934472°N 0.6296917°W / 51.5934472; -0.6296917

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