 | |||
| Full name | Woodford Town Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Woods | ||
| Founded | 2002 | ||
| Ground | Ashton Playing Fields, Woodford | ||
| Chairman | Tony Scott | ||
| Manager | Shane Baptiste | ||
| League | Essex Senior League | ||
| 2023–24 | Essex Senior League, 2nd of 20 | ||
| Website | Club website | ||
Woodford Town Football Club is a football club based in Woodford in the London Borough of Redbridge. They are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at Ashton Playing Fields.
Established as Mauritius Sports in 2002, the club was founded with the aim of providing a good standard of footballing opportunity for the Mauritian community in London, as well as providing a feeder for British-born Mauritians to play for their country at international level. [1] The new club joined Division One of the London Intermediate League for the 2001–02 season, [2] before becoming members of the Premier Division of the Middlesex County League in 2003. [3] They merged with CMB (Metal Box) in 2004, and played as Mauritius Sports (CMB) in the 2004–05 season before reverting to their original name. [3] [4]
The club were accepted into the Essex Senior League for the 2007–08 season following a merger of Mauritius Sports and Walthamstow Avenue & Pennant and were initially named Mauritius Sports & Pennant. [5] Two years later they were renamed Mauritius Sports Association UK, [6] before becoming Haringey & Waltham Development in 2011. [7] Following its association with the Greenhouse London sports charity, the club changed its name again in 2013, becoming Greenhouse London, [8] and then Greenhouse Sports in 2015. [9] The club became Haringey & Waltham in 2016. [10] Although they finished bottom of the league in 2016–17, they were reprieved from relegation. [11] They then changed their name to Woodford Town 2017 for the 2017–18 season, [12] [13] succeeding the club who left the Spartan South Midlands League in 2016. The 2017 part of the name was dropped in 2019.
In 2023–24 Woodford were runners-up in the Essex Senior League, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. They were knocked out at the semi-final stage, losing 5–4 on penalties to Sporting Bengal United after a 1–1 draw.
The club played at Waltham Forest's Wadham Lodge ground in Walthamstow until 2011, when they moved to Coles Park in Haringey to groundshare with Haringey Borough. In 2016 they moved to the Terence McMillan Stadium in Plaistow before starting a groundshare with Broxbourne at Goff's Lane for the 2017–18 season. The club relocated to the Harlow Arena prior to the 2018–19 season, [14] and announced their intention to return to Woodford at Ashton Playing Fields for 2020. [15]
The club were due to move into Ashton Playing Fields in November 2020, however new lockdown measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England postponed the club's return to Woodford. [16] The stand at the new ground is named the 'Jas Athwal Stand' in recognition of Jas Athwal, the Labour Party politician and Leader of Redbridge Council, for his contribution to bringing the club home to Woodford. [17] [18] On 13 August 2021, Woodford played their first game at the stadium, losing 2–1 against Stansted in front of 822 spectators. [19]
Chingford is a suburban town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The centre of Chingford is 9.2 miles (14.8 km) north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the south, and Edmonton and Enfield to the west. It had a population of 70,583 at the 2021 census.
Redbridge Forest Football Club was an English football club, founded in 1979 as Leytonstone & Ilford F.C., which in 1989 merged with Walthamstow Avenue and the following season adopted the name Redbridge Forest. In 1992 the club merged with Dagenham to form the present Dagenham & Redbridge.
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Walthamstow Avenue Football Club was an English football club based in Walthamstow in London. Based at Green Pond Road, they played in dark and light blue hooped shirts, and light blue shorts. The club was established in 1900, and was one of the most successful amateur clubs in the country during the 1950s. The club ceased to exist in 1988 when it merged with Leytonstone/Ilford, who later became Redbridge Forest and merged with Dagenham to form Dagenham and Redbridge. They have since been revived as an amateur football club, currently playing in the Sunday Essex Corinthian League.
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Woodford Town F.C. was an English football club based in Woodford, Greater London.
Hackney Wick Football Club is a football club in Essex, England. They are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Division One South and play at Spa Road in Witham.
The 2013–14 season was the 43rd in the history of Essex Senior Football League a football competition in England.
The 1987–88 season was the 73rd season of the Isthmian League, which is an English football competition featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs from London, East and South East England.
Jasbir Singh Athwal is a British Labour Party politician who is the current MP for Ilford South since 2024. He previously served as Leader of Redbridge London Borough Council from 2014 to 2024.
West Essex Football Club is a football club based in Highams Park in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, England. They are currently members of the Essex Senior League and groundshare with Walthamstow at Wadham Lodge in Walthamstow.
The 2016–17 season was the 46th in the history of Essex Senior Football League, a football competition in England.
The 2017–18 season was the 47th in the history of Essex Senior Football League, a football competition in England.
The South Essex League was a football league that was held in Essex and East London.
The 2021–22 season was the 51st in the history of the Essex Senior Football League, a football competition in England.
