WINCHESTER CITY Football Club The Citizens Post Saturday September 7th 2019 Taunton Town 3.00pm FA Cup - 1st Qualifying Round £1 The Citizens Post from the boardroom Good Afternoon Welcome to the Simplyhealth City Ground for today's Emirates FA Cup First Qualifying Round tie between Winchester City and Taunton Town. We welcome the players, officials, staff and supporters that have made the journey up from the west country this afternoon and we hope you enjoy your afternoon in Winchester and have a safe journey home. We are delighted to have made it to this stage of the FA Cup once again, having overcome AFC Stoneham 3-1 in a replay away from home on Tuesday night. Thanks to all the supporters that made the journey to Stoneham, it was very much appreci- ated by everyone connected with the club. If you haven't had an opportunity to see it yet, Winchester City FC have a regular slot on That's Hampshire/That's Solent TV. This is on freeview channel 7 or 8 depending where you are. Check on our social media platforms to find out the day and the time. Whatever the outcome today, we are away in the Hampshire Senior Cup on September 17th, to Hythe & Dibden, where your support would be much appreci- ated. As a football club, we are heavily reliant on volunteers. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or even a committee member, please let me know at [email protected]. Thank-you all for your valuable support! We continue to push on together as one! #youcitizens #upthewinch The Citizens Post DAVOs diary Good afternoon and a warm welcome to everyone for today’s exciting FA Cup 1st qualifying round tie against Taunton Town. We wish Taunton’s players, staff and supporters a pleasant stay with us and a safe trip home afterwards, they are a club I have a great deal of respect for and are a very good side from the league above, our very own Keith Emmerson is well known to them having played a good part in their rise over the last 18 months or so. Without a doubt it’s a tough game but one we are very excited about. We managed to earn this with an extremely good and professional display away at AFC Stoneham on Tuesday night, many claimed they were favourites for the game as they had nicked a draw against us in the 1st game in the last minute and had put in a good display against us, in my opinion that was disrespectful of my group as we had played without 3 of our forwards on the day and had been rarely troubled in the game despite playing poorly by our standards, talk of their deserving to have beaten us on the day I just don’t agree with. We went there very confident on what is a very very poor and bumpy pitch, we still felt we had more than enough to show why we were the higher league side. Our cause was not helped by a ludicrous sending off for an unfortunate coming together and their player falling and smashing his head on the ground leaving him groggy and a bleeding nose, the ref in his wisdom and to the surprise of everyone (all of their team and management even) sent Rob Carr off in the first minute!i must say the referee went onto have a very very poor game I hasten to add and we had to keep our cool as best we could, we also had a mountain to climb with 10 men for so long. One thing that is guaranteed with our lads is their togetherness and also their fitness levels and we limited Stoneham to 1 shot on goal in the first half, we scored twice with blistering counters Oli Bailey scoring 1 and Jamie Barron the other on stroke of half time. 2nd half we contained them and they were launching long balls at us to defend which we did except for 1 corner that they scored a header from. We made 3 changes and closed up the game very well and even got a 3rd through Griggsy with another excellent break! A very pleasing performance and brilliantly executed game plan by the lads after going down to 10 men after a minute or so! That win came hot on the heels of a brilliant 3-0 win on Saturday against Melksham, goals from Bailey x2 and Balmer gave us a that result and we were very pleased with the controlled way we dealt with them. Player news we are at a full compliment today with Liam Gilbert back available following work commitment, we are likely to be missing Max Smith who is ill but other than that we are full strength. I hope everyone enjoys the game and can get behind the lads as we will need it, let’s hope we can do something special again, whatever happens though there is no pressure on us, we will just go and give it a good go and see how it goes. Up the citizens! Davo Todays Visitors TAUNTON TOWN FC A BRIEF HISTORY OF TAUNTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB The present Taunton Town Football Club was formed in December 1947 by a few local businessmen and played their first friendly fixture during Easter 1948. They then played on a number of grounds such as Mountfields, French Weir, Victoria Park, Huish Old Boys and finished up at Denman’s Park, Haines Hill. Having joined and played in the Somerset Senior League, 1953 became a notable year. The club gained admission into the Western League and moved into Wordsworth Drive, their present home, on a lease agreement with the Taunton Borough Council. The club struggled financially and depended heavily on a very active Supporters Club during the late 50s and early 60s. 1968/69 saw an upsurge in the club’s fortunes with manager Doug Hillard securing the Western League championship for the first time. During the middle 1970s Ron Gingell became manager and the club were runners up for four consecutive seasons. The 70s was also highlighted by the club purchasing the ground from Taunton Borough Council and the installation of floodlights. During 1977 the club gained election to the Southern League Division One (South) and two years later the reorganisation of the leagues caused by the establishing of the Alliance Premier League saw Taunton Town transfer to the Midland Division to take advantage of the M5 motorway. The club became a limited company in 1981. The new board soon decided that Southern League football was too expensive and the club reverted to the Western League in 1983. Seven years later the championship pennant returned to Wordsworth Drive under the management of Keith Bowker. In 1994 the team then managed by Terry Rowles battled through to the F A Vase final at Wembley Stadium but Diss Town won the trophy in extra time. Russell Musker was appointed manager in November 1994 and another championship followed in 1996. After two seasons as runners up three consecutive titles followed together with the club’s first ever Cup success – a 2 – 1 victory over Berkhamsted Town in the F A Carlsberg Vase final at Aston Villa’s newly modernised Villa Park stadium. This ended a sequence of 18 defeats in cup finals since the 1950s. Another Cup victory was achieved in 2003, lifting the Somerset Premier Cup for the first time with a 2-1 win over Yeovil Town in a final played at Clevedon Town’s Hand Stadium. Peter Beadle took over as Manager in 2005 amid great optimism but left after only 14 games to join Newport County and former Hallen manager Gary Domone stepped into the hot seat – after a disappointing start results began to improve and the club won its second Somerset Premier Cup by beating a strong Mangots- field United side at Weston super Mare. Domone resigned as Manager in December 2007 and was replaced by Ian Jones, who himself resigned in April 2009. Former player Paul West, who lifted the F A Vase in 2001, took over and rebuilt the team with a local emphasis. West left the club in May 2012 and was replaced by Leigh Robinson. In the previous season the club finished with a run of nine consecutive victories culminating with the club’s third Somerset Premier Cup triumph, beating Frome Town 1-0 in the final played at Paulton Rovers FC. This was especially notable as no goals were conceded in five games. The club also won the Southern League Groundsman of the Year award in 2013-2014, a remarkable achievement considering the floods which affected the area causing the ground to be under water for much of January and February. In July 2010 Tom Harris stepped down as Chairman after 29 years and was replaced by Kevin Sturmey who also took on the roles of Chief Executive and Head Groundsman. Since then the club have made major improvements on and off the pitch, continuing to maintain the ambi- tions to play at a higher level. Off the field the club suffered a major blow in July 2011 when the clubhouse was badly damaged by a fire which was caused by an electrical fault – what remained of the clubhouse was extensively smoke damaged and the whole building had to be demolished. A mobile bar was brought in on matchdays but the following year a modular building was opened despite the original builder going into administration. 2014-2015 was one of the most successful seasons in recent history with fourth place in the League, and the retention of the Somerset Premier Cup, beating Yeovil Town in the final.