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RADSTOCK TOWN FC

Formation: Pro gramme notes from a game in 1937 suggest that football was being
played in Radstock as early as 1835 but there is no solid evidence to back that up.
However, there are newspaper match reports from 1883 so, it can be safely as sumed
that the club was actually formed in the early 1880’s. Radstock Wanderers was the
clubs name from 1889 until they changed to Radstock Town after affiliating to the
Somerset FA in 1895.
Ground: In the early days the club played on a ground off of the Old Bath Road
situated where a Primary School stood until recently. It was officially called Roundhill
but was known locally as ‘Hilltop’. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s they also played
at South Hill, which is where a Bath College campus is now but at the time was a manor
house and grounds owned by Earl Walder- grave.
The lack of a true home became critical at the end of the First World War and the club
was unable to re form until 1920 when they were able to move to their current home
at Southfield. The first official fixture played at Southfield was on Sep tember 10th 1920
when Warminster Town were the visitors in an FA Cup tie. The game, which Radstock
won 1-0, was watched by a crowd of 700, which apparently ‘greatly pleased the club
committee!’
As a business: Financial issues saw the club take a couple of breaks from competitive
first team football,
1900-01 to 1902-03 and again at the end of the 1909-10 campaign. The 1914-18 war
and the lack of a pitch meant that Radstock Town didn’t appear again as senior club
until the 1920-21 season.
In 1930 club supporters joined to gether to create a supporter’s social club which
remains in existence to this day.
On the pitch: The club’s first silver ware came when they won the inau gural Somerset
Senior Cup at the end of the 1895/96 season beating Wells City 4-0 in a replay at
Midsomer Norton following a 1-1 draw. The club has won the cup twelve times
subsequently and finished runners up on a further thirteen occasions! Success in
league competitions has been harder to come by but they have won the Somerset
Senior League six times and the Wiltshire League on four occasions. Despite many
seasons in the Western League the best position achieved was way back in the 1920/21
season when the reformed side finished run ners up. The 1960’s & 70’s were the most
successful in the clubs long history when they won a remarkable 12 leagues and cups!
The 2000’s: Early in the new millen nia the club was promoted back to the Western
League and then promoted to the Premier Division at the first attempt. Life in the
Premier Division was difficult though and the best place finish was 12th in 2010/11
season. 2013/14 was a particularly traumatic campaign which saw the playing budget
withdrawn to keep the club going, the chairman resign, two mangers leave and ended
with the club being relegated!
Since then though the Chairman and committee has worked very hard to bring stability
back to the club and de spite some dark moments the team remain in the First Division.
Today: Season 2022/23 was a particularly difficult one for the Club. Despite reaching
the play-offs at the end of the previous season most of the squad decided to play their
football elsewhere. That and the late appointment of the new Management Team of
Ray Johnston, Elliot Gibbons and Ian Lanning had to start the season with a makeshift
eleven, however, hard work and team spirit saw the team stay competitive throughout
the campaign. Scroll on a year and after a positive summer the same management
team and supporters are optimistic that this season will see us battling at the right end
of the table!