Wormley Rovers FC vs. Potton United FC

Welcome to our opponents

Potton United were, unusually, formed in Wartime 1943. Although only limited football was played at this time they soon made their mark on the local football scene by winning the Bedfordshire Intermediate Cup in 1944.
When football returned to normality after the war, United joined the South Midlands League and remained there until 1955. The club then applied to join a London based league but were refused entry so they were forced to take a break from competitive football for one season.
They spent a short period in the Central Alliance League before finally joining the United Counties League where they remained in the Premier Division until the end of the 2000/2001 season when they were relegated into Division One.
Potton were very successful in the local cup competitions in the 1960’s and 70’s but had to wait until the 1986/87 season to win their first league title. During this season they remained unbeaten on their travels. Two years later this achievement was repeated and Ray Seekings scored a club record 56 goals. It is also interesting that those players have retained a keen interest in the club.
The 1989/90 season saw Potton reach the fifth round of the FA Vase, before losing 2-1 away to Billericay in front of a 1000 plus crowd. Potton had a good following that day and many remember the after match activities.
The 1991/92 season saw a major change within the club when long serving Manager, Terry King, resigned. His assistant, Andy Lloyd, took over and guided the club to win the Hunts Premier and Hinchingbrooke Cup competitions.
1993/94 was the first season for many years that Potton failed to win any silverware and ended with Andy Lloyd announcing his resignation.
Kenny Davidson took over the reins for four seasons and won a number of cup competitions, but failed to make any real impact in the league. The 1996/7 season was the most impressive with the club participating in six cup finals, winning four of them.
After Kenny left in 1998 the club went through a bad spell on the pitch and were eventually relegated. After a poor season in Division One, it was decided that the club should look for a new manager. Former club captain and fans favourite, Dick Newman returned to the club at the start of the 2002/2003 season. After spending most of the season in second place in the league, a poor run in at the end of the season cost the club promotion. However, it was good to see such a great team spirit on and off the pitch.
The Reserves had the most successful year in their history in the 2002/03 season. Under the guidance of John ‘Chippy’ Charter, they finished runners up in the league and County Cup and won the Biggleswade Knockout Cup.
At the start of 2003/4, the clubs 60th Anniversary, the club played a Rushden and Diamonds X1 that consisted mainly their youth side. The match attracted about 450, and this in spite of the wooden stand being burnt down one month earlier.
Dick was well prepared for 2003/4 and expected a lot from the squad. At the start of the season he had set them a target in the league of 100 goals, 25 goals against and 80 points. Going into the last game of the season at Olney the first team needed to win to secure the league title, and they did so in style winning 5-0. The league playing record for the season was played 34, won 24, drawn 5, lost 4, goals for 99, goals against 25, points 80—which was extremely close to Dick’s targets. This then secured promotion back to the Premier Division.
The Reserves played in the newly formed Bedfordshire County Reserve League, and finished a creditable third.
Having gained promotion the club was looking to consolidate their position in the league, but November onwards found them challenging for honours. Eventually they had to settle for runners-up to Cogenhoe. The reason for this was the failure of the floodlights twice when playing Cogenhoe, which led to the match being replayed as the last game of the season when they had to beat Cogenhoe to win the league. They could only manage a 2-2 draw, in front of the largest crowd of the season (325), although they had the majority of the play they could not just score the winning goal.
The first team won the UCL Knock-Out Cup, for the first time since 1972/3, and also won the Hinchingbrooke Cup and North Beds Charity Cup. The team played 63 matches during the season and won 48, scoring an incredible 163 goals (111 in the league and 52 in cup matches). Joint Managers Dick Newman and Roy Bloxham won three Manager of the Month’s awards as well as winning Manager of the Season award.
In 2005 Ian Donnelly took over the role of Manager following Dick’s close season resignation. At the start of the season many would have settled for a mid table finish but when we went top in October and remained there for the rest of the season, with the exception of one week, it seemed that we would be in for a chance of beating the previous seasons runners up spot. Unfortunately, fate was to strike again and Woodford pipped us to the league title, this time goal difference was the deciding factor. In the cups, they went out of the FA Cup and FA Vase early on but retained the North Beds Charity Cup, beating Wootton 3-1.
The Reserves finished mid table under new manager Martin Beech and they also made early exits from the local cup competitions.
Following Ian Donnelly’s resignation towards the end of last season due to business commitments, Roy Bloxham was appointed as first team manager. Roy moved quickly to bring Dick Newman back to the club as his assistant.
In season 2006-07 we finished a creditable fourth in the league and reached the Fourth Round of the FA Vase before losing 2-1 to eventual finalists AFC Totton. We did not win any silverware but reached the final of the North Beds Charity Cup and UCL knock-out cup.
The Reserves finished mid-table in the Bedfordshire County Reserve League, which was disbanded and therefore in 2007-08 the Reserves will be playing in UCL Reserve Division Two.
Roy Bloxham announced that he would not be able to continue as Manager, for personal and business reasons, and the club appointed 32 year old Dean Chapman as Manager. Unfortunately most of the previous three season’s squad left the club so Dean had the job of rebuilding the side with his cousin Adam Chapman and Kelvin Ash helping him. Graeme Endersby was appointed Manager for the Reserve team with the aim of recruiting local players and encouraging Potton Colts players to move into the Reserves.
Unfortunately things did not work out with the running of the reserve team and Graeme left the club in January. Committee member John Menzies took over for the remainder of the season and brought a number of Colts players into the side. Unfortunately, due to the numerous changes in players this unsettled the side and they finished bottom of the league.
The first team also had a very unsettled side and just escaped relegation by finishing third from bottom. They faired slightly better in cup competitions reaching four semi-finals and one final. Just before the end of the season Dean Chapman announced he would be stepping down as manager at the end of the season which left the club the task of appointing a new manager for the fourth consecutive season.
Former Potton goalkeeper and Eynesbury Manager Dean Shipp was given the job and brings an experienced backroom team with him. Former Potton Colts Under 17 Management team of Howard Moore, Clive Munns and Richard Gilbert will be running the reserve side which will include many of last years under 17 team.
Last season was a very disappointing one as the club finished second from bottom and were relegated into Division One. It was particularly disappointing that we were relegated due to not passing the required ground grading and Rothwell Corinthians, who finished bottom, stayed up in the Premier Division. The Reserve team had a very difficult season as a number of the young players found the transition to senior football too difficult so in January we had to make the difficult decision to fold the reserves.
Three weeks before the commencement of the 2009/10 season Dean Shipp announced his resignation which left the club a big problem, trying to fill the gap so close to the season. Tom Galvin and Declan Shilton were appointed as joint managers whilst Tom’s father, former Spurs and Republic of Ireland International player, Tony Galvin took the role of Head Coach. In this season we finished in the bottom half of Division One and were losing finalists in the Bedfordshire Senior Trophy. In September 2010 Tom Galvin wanted to concentrate on playing so Darren Staniforth and Glen Clark were appointed joint Managers. They had a difficult season which finished in 16th place in the league. Clarke left the club and Rob Steele joined Darren for 6 seasons. This management team oversaw the transformation off and on the pitch. Establishing 2 sides in the UCL and seeing the development of the clubhouse and the pitch to a high standard for local football. With their guidance the side reached the Bedfordshire Senior Trophy final, the UCL Cup final, the first time a division 1 side had made the final for over 40 years, and finishing top 3 in the division only to be kept down because of goal difference. They also oversaw the development of one of the best defences in the country in season 2014/2015.
Work commitments and a young family saw Staniforth promoted to Head of Football and Lawrence Revell appointed manager in 2017. Laurence continued to build on what was there and achieved a top 6 finish. Revell stepped down shortly after the start of the 2017 season and was replaced by ex-player Steve Kuhne. Steve managed to elevate the players and achieved a second-place finish in his first season gaining PUFC promotion back to the UCP Premier, something that had been wanted by everyone involved for many years. They also went on to guide the players to the North Beds Charity Cup. Kuhne resigned in close season the following year. Revell returned and brought with him a new back-room team. External commitments saw Revell give up his position and have Jimmy Martine promoted from 1st team coach to manager. Jimmy over saw the team through the covid pandemic. Aside from all the restrictions and challenges Martin managed to achieve very acceptable league positions under the conditions. Martine moved on at the end of the 2021/22 season seeing Gary Jackson return to the club. Jackson had previously coached the first team for Revell and Martin so he got straight to work building a squad for the next season. Jackson worked tirelessly to find the best available players capable of playing in the south midlands league, his efforts saw PUFC maintain a respectable positions in both his season in charge. Jackson stepped down just before the end of the 2024/25 season making room for Jack Galatis to take over the team on an interim basis until his full-time appointment in the close season. His first season was a difficult one with the team occupying the relegation places for the majority of the first half of the season. A good run from the New Year ensure they finished one place above to continue to play Step 5 football for this season.