Bradford Town F.C.

History

Bradford Town FC was formed by Les Stevens and his wife Pat in 1992. They started playing at St. Laurence School in Bradford on Avon, in the Wiltshire County League where the pitch had to be roped off before every home game, and the half time tea made in the boot of a car.

In the 1993-94 season they gained promotion to the Wilts County Premier League. They then started to ground share with Trowbridge Town at the old Frome Road ground in Trowbridge until moving to their present ground in Bradford on Avon in 1996.

They gained promotion to the Western League in the 2005-06 Season under the management team of Mark Hodkinson, Andy O’ Pray & Ted Miluk after finishing runners up in the Wilts County Premier League the previous season. In their first season they finished 10th but slipped to 17th & 13th in the following two years. For the 2008-09 Season we had a new management team of Paul Shanley and his assistant Mark Edwards – both ex players, who were team members when the club was formed, indeed Paul was the first club captain. 2008-09 also saw the installation of the Club's floodlights officially switched on by Steve Phillips of Bristol Rovers. We then had our best season to date finishing 3rd in the league after challenging for promotion.

Season 2009-10 saw the installation of another stand complete with seating for 100. The team reached the second round proper of the FA Vase losing out to Wellington in a very close game. After a blip in mid season following the result of losing prolific goal scorer Matt Minis to Frome Town, the team got back on winning form and finished 4th in the league. 2010-11 Season saw the team finish 6th and 2011-12 Season finishing 5th in the league. Season 2012-13 saw Paul Shanley added Ali Belcher to his management team. This season saw the management team guide the team to 3rd, where with fewer injuries and silly loses may have seen us in with a shout of promotion, which just eluded us. Early exits from both the FA Cup and the FA Vase were a disappointment and Paul hoped that we could improve on this for the season 2013-2014.

The 2013-2014 Season saw the club focus on the first team, following the disbandment of the Reserve Team. This season saw the Town's push for promotion succeed when they won the Division One league by a clear 13 points with our top goal scorer Sammy Jordan netting a total of 77 goals and winning the League's Top Goal Scorer award. Manager Paul Shanley also picked up the Div.1 Manager of the Year award. The team were runners up in the Wilts Senior Cup losing out to Melksham Town on penalties after an exciting final at Chippenham Town's ground in front of a 500+ crowd. The FA Cup was disappointing as we went out in the first game, and we didn’t fare much better in the Vase where we went out at the second stage.

2014-2015, our first season in the Premiership was a very good one for the most part. We progressed to the 3rd round of the early stages of the FA Cup. We were even more successful in the FA Vase where we got through 6 rounds before missing out on the quarter finals having been beaten by Highworth Town 2-1. We made it to the quarter finals of the Les Phillips Cup and once again ran out runners-up in the Wilts Senior Cup. Most of the season saw us in contention with the top three but we fell away badly at the end of the season. Injuries, suspensions and poor play saw us finish the season in 8th place.

2015-2016 saw us finish in 8th place once again in the league. We progressed to the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup getting knocked out by Chippenham Town in front of a crowd of nearly 400 & reaching the 4th round of the FA Vase losing out to Hartley Wintney. After 8 years at the helm Paul Shanley decided to step down as manager.

2016-2017 starts with a new management team of Danny Greaves former assistant manager of Bristol Manor Farm, assisted by former fans favourite Aaron Wilson. The club also has a new Chairman Mark Hodkinson & Vice Chairman Jon Phillips both who have long standing connections with the club.

Ground

Bradford Town play their home games at Bradford on Avon Sports Club, Trowbridge Road, Bradford-on-Avon, BA15 1EX.

Records