Nickname(s) The Saints Ground Capacity 1,000 Manager Alex Baird | Ground Banbury Road
Southam Chairman Charles Hill Founded 1905 | |
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Full name Southam United Football Club League Midland Football Combination Premier Division | ||
Southam United F.C. are a football club situated in the small rural town of Southam, Warwickshire, in the Midlands, England, who currently play in the Midland League Division One, step 6 in the non-league pyramid system.
Contents
History
Known as the “Saints”, they celebrated their Centenary in 2005, having been founded in 1905 following the amalgamation of two village teams. From 1947 to 1956 the club dominated the Coventry and North Warwickshire League. They took the step up to the Midland Combination in 1980–81 and immediately won the Division Three title. When the League was reorganised in 1983–84, United were placed in the Premier Division, but after several seasons of struggle they were downgraded to Division Two when it was discovered that their pitch was now too short owing to the construction of a bowling green next to it. Finally in 1995–96 United made it back to the Premier Division after two promotions in seven years.
The 1997–98 season was the Saints' most successful as they finished as Premier Division runners up and also won the Birmingham County FA Vase with a 3–0 victory over Shirley Town, but league form since then has been disappointing, with four successive finishes in the bottom two between 2001 and 2004 seeing relegation only staved off each time by a lack of teams with acceptable facilities to be promoted.
In 2001, Saints merged with Southam Town FC, a progressive junior club formed in 1972, which amongst other achievements, pioneered ladies and girls football in Warwickshire.
Although finishing in 15th place in the 2009–10 seasons, Saints had finished 3rd in each of the previous two seasons and, in addition, won the Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Cup in 2008–09 with a 3–1 win over Darlaston Town.
Summer 2010 saw the club appoint former West Bromwich Albion and Burnley player and UEFA Pro Licence coach Jason Withe, the son of former England international Peter Withe as Director of Football. During September 2012 Lee Knibbs replaced Luke Foggarty as first team manager after two years as manager. Barry Shearsby also departed his role as assistant manager and brought to an end his second spell with the club after a four-year stint as manager of the club (2006 to 2010).
Club records
All-time leading goal scorer and also record appearance holder is Bob Hancocks, who first played for the team when he was 15 years old and in his career at the Saints scored over 1,200 goals and in one season he scored 18 hat tricks. Season 1960–61 was his heyday for the club when he scored 85 goals and the team scored 115 and only conceded 23. In second place in the all-time leading scorers is James Claridge, who whilst playing for the club between 2008 and 2011 scored 87 goals.