Page 17 - CHUFC vs Westside 05.04.22

WESTSIDE FC ply for promotion to the Surrey South ers was curtailed by COVID -19.

Colliers Wood United FC
Eastern Combination Intermediate
Westside FC was founded by player managed by League (SSEC) the following season. Last season 2020-21 we moved to a
Unfortunately, the plan went wrong ground sharing arrangement at Col-
Graham Holder, our current Graham Holder, won when the team ended 3rd. Graham liers Wood United FC, and again this
Chairman, in May 1996 and is KDL Division 5, the decided to take a gamble and trans- season will be playing home games at
based at West Side Church in Tec Cup, and the Sports- ferred the team into the SSEC Jun- the same venue.
Wandsworth. Graham travelled to manship Cup and were runners-up ior 1 and it gained promotion to the Mission Tour to Senegal
the USA in 1994 with Ambassadors in the League Junior Cup. Not a bad Intermediate League in 2002/03 by Also, in 2004, the club became the
in Sport to coach and evangelise in start and with Dave Doran scoring 55 winning the last game of the season first Christian team to take a Mis-
against promotion rivals Warling- sion Tour to Senegal in West Africa.
ham. A great adventure, two years of plan-
Graham Holder remained Manag- ning and a difficult one for a Chris-
er until 2008/09 and after 12 years tian team in a mainly Muslim coun-
stepped down to manage the Re- try. The tour was a great success and
serves in SSEC Junior 1. His Assistant we returned in 2007 with an even
Manager, Steve Walters took over more gruelling schedule of matches,
the job of 1st team manager. During coaching and Christian evangelism.
those 12 years, the club won numer- There were some very unusual pitch-
ous trophies – see clubs honours page es and football in the jungle is a real
-including being FA Charter Stand- experience! We also have connections
ard National Adult Club of the Year with Romania and Sierra Leone.
2005/06. We believe that our original vision to
We moved to ground share be a multi team club has blossomed
Steve Walters led the first team to over the years since 1996.
the SSEC Intermediate Division 2 Won numerous trophies
title in 2014/15 and Division 1 the The club has expanded greatly since
San Jose, California during the 1994 goals. following season gaining promotion starting youth and girls’ football in
World Cup. While he was there he The club grew to have three adult to the Surrey Elite League when we 2002. Under the overall control of
had a vision to form a Christian foot- men’s teams in the KDL with broth- switched to playing our home games Jane Walters, we now have over 30
ball club on his return to the UK. ers, friends and friends of friends firstly at Croydon Arena and then at youth boys teams from U7 to U18
West Side Church joining. The 1st team progressed AFC Croydon Athletic. In 2018/19 with teams playing on both Saturday
In 1996 this happened. With the team through the divisions of the KDL and we finished 3rd and gained promo- and Sunday. All these teams have also
only having 7 players, it joined Di- in 1999/20 were Division 2 Champi- tion to Step 6 of the National Football won numerous trophies across all lev-
vision 5 of the Kingston & District ons and were promoted directly to Structure and entered the Combined els of the club – please see the hon-
League (KDL). By the start of the sea- the KDL Premier Division and won Counties Division 1. We moved to ours list in our programmes. Since
son, the team had 17 players mainly this the following season 2000/01. ground share with Chessington & season 2019-20, we joined forces with
from the West Side Church youth The club decided to have a further Hook United and despite a relatively Sean Innes Coaching and formed three
group. In this first season the team, season in the KDL Premier and ap- good start, our season like many oth- new teams in the Surrey Youth League.