Warmley F.C. was a football club based in Warmley, near Kingswood, Gloucestershire, England. They were formed in 1882.[1] They are widely regarded as playing the first organised football match in the Bristol region against St George.[1]
| Full name | Warmley Football Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1882 |
| Dissolved | 1899 |
Alongside Clifton, St George and Eastville Rovers they were founder members of the Gloucestershire F.A.[1] They were also one of the founding members of the Bristol & District League (now the Western Football League) in 1892, winning the title four times in their history.
With the advent of professionalism in the Western League in 1897 St George approached Warmley with a proposal to merge the two clubs. The feeling among members of St George was that Bristol was not large enough to support four professional clubs (Bristol City, Eastville Rovers, Warmley, and St George) and that by pooling their resources a new merged team would be the strongest club in the city.[2] Warmley, however, rejected the proposal and the merger never took place.[3]
In 1896, Warmley joined the Second Division of the Southern League, before both Bristol City and Bristol Rovers. The 1897–98 season saw the club finishing in second place to Royal Artillery (forerunners to Portsmouth) in the process becoming the first team in the Southern League to score 100 goals in a season.
The club now competed in the First Division alongside other Bristol sides City and Bedminster. Only seventeen matches were completed before the club folded in February 1899.
A new club formed and entered the Western League again in 1903. The club resigned in the 1904–05 season and its season record was expunged.
Honours
edit- Southern Football League Second Division runners up 1898
- Western Football League/Bristol & District League champions 1893, 1894, 1896, 1897
References
edit- ^ a b c brizzle born and bred Paul Townsend Add Contact (20 November 2007). "1898 Warmley Football Club AFC | Flickr – Photo Sharing!". Flickr. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ^ "St George Football Club and professionalism". Bristol Times and Mirror. 24 April 1897. Retrieved 20 January 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Warmley Football Club". Gloucester Citizen. 26 May 1897. Retrieved 20 January 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
Sources
edit- The Official Centenary History of the Southern League ISBN 1-871872-08-1
- Football Club History Database
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