History of Wormley Rovers FC - Wormley Sports Club

History and Honours

Wormley Rovers FC

BRIEF HISTORY OF WORMLEY ROVERS FC

Wormley Football Club was originally formed in 1921 playing its home matches on land donated by Joseph Rochford & Sons, at that time a big name in horticulture as well as being an employer of a large percentage of the local population. The Club was reformed in 1947 after the 2nd World War, moving to its present ground at Wormley Playing Fields, in Church Lane in 1954.

During the late 1940’s, 50’s and early 60’s the Club was a major force in Junior Football, frequently embarrassing more senior opposition during that period. The late 1960’s, and early 70’s saw a decline in fortune, however, this was redressed and by 1975 the Club had progressed to join the Herts Senior County League, where they had two teams performing; the first team in the Premier and the Reserves in Division 2. Despite a few near misses over the years the First team have never managed to lift the Premier Division title.

The highlight for the Reserve team was winning the Division 1 Reserve title in 1998-99 dropping only four points in the process. Since stepping up to the Herts Senior County League, the Club formed a successful Youth Section in 1975, with a number of players going on to play in professional ranks. David Bentley, Arsenal, Blackburn & Spurs began his football career with Wormley Youth as did Charlie Lee, Peterborough, Gillingham Stevenage and Yeovil Town.

The next step was the addition of a flourishing and successful Vets section in 1984. In line with League requirements, a fixed post and rail was installed in 1990, floodlights were added in 1994, and the brick built dugouts in 1996. Adam Arnold achieved a fifth placed finish in the last season of County league football before embarking in the 2018/19 campaign at step 6 in the Thurlow Nunn league.

Despite a tricky start to the season the side settled by October playing at the new level taking several scalps along the way notably inflicting the only home league defeat on eventual champions Hashtag United. A good start to the 2019/20 season saw Wormley spend much of the early season in the top five but a poor run in November and December led to a managerial change take place in February.

Jamie Elliot stepped up from assistant to take charge and with a few changes the club went on a long unbeaten run which lifted them to eight place when the season ended due to covid19. The team had also reached the final of the Herts Centenary Trophy in which they were due to play Oxhey Jetts reserves . This game however did not take place and the Herts F A jointly awarded the trophy. Off the field the club installed a new 75 seat stand in march and look forward to the 2020/21 season which will see the club celebrate their centenary season with celebrations hopefully taking place in the new year.

The centenary season saw us consolidate ourselves in the division with a seventh place finish and grateful for an undisrupted season at last. Jamie retained most of the squad going into the 2022/23 season but started slowly throwing away points turning winning positions into draws which saw us struggle to climb out of the bottom half early on. September saw a managerial change Jamie Elliot moving to Cheshunt in an assistant manager role.

The Club moved quickly to appoint Ryan Wade and John Stevenson to take charge. With the addition of some players with step 5 experience the club went on an amazing run of results that took us into the top three by Christmas accompanied by a good run in the FA Vase bowing out to higher level Sheringham Town in front of a large crowd at church lane. The new year saw continued positive results and saw us go top with three games left after beating eventual champions Frenford at home. However the terrible April weather saw us have to play the last three games in six days which saw us drop into the play off places where we succumbed to a strong Sporting Bengal side who would gain promotion to the Essex senior league.

Disappointment was compounded when Ryan Wade decided to leave for Ware FC at the start of pre season training. A dozen players followed in various directions leaving us in a dire situation with barely a month to go before the start of the season. Dean Harrison originally appointed to assist Ryan took charge and to his credit and some players who have stayed loyal have managed to pull a squad together to get us up and running again. Dean Harrison however decided to take a lucrative position as CEO of Kent United after only six games but Ryan Wade unhappy at Ware FC was very keen to return and rebuild the squad he had assembled from last season. Ryan’s return soon took us on a run of results that saw us climb into the Promotion places and a title race with Benfleet Fc. Our encounter away at Benfleet in October, although totally dominating, resulted in a rare 2-0 defeat but one we avenged winning the return 4-0 in March to keep us hot on their heels, following this up by beating Harlow Town 4-2 to jump into top spot. This only lasted briefly as Benfleet won their game in hand and this is how it remained until the end of the season. So it was the play offs for the second year in a row. Both games were nail-biting affairs, firstly beating Clapton Community F.C 3-2 in injury time then defeating Dunmow Town 2-1, again in injury time thanks to Bradley Empson’s late winner to send a massive crowd home happy. So on to step 5 Football for season 24/25 let’s see where it takes us.

HONOURS LIST:

HERTS SENIOR COUNTY LEAGUE

Division Three: Winners: 1976/1977

Division One: Winners: 1986/1987 Runner Up: 1991/1992

Premier Division: Runner Up: 1993/1994, 1998/1999, 1999/2000

Roy Bailey Memorial Trophy: Winners: 1993 Herts Senior Trophy: Runner Up: 1999/2000, 2000/2001, 2009/2010 Joint holders 2019/2020

South Midlands Floodlit Cup: Runner Up: 2002/2003

Chairmans Cup: Runner Up: 2001/2002

Reserve Division 1: Winners: 1998/99, Runner Up: 1993/1994, 1999/2000

Reserve Cup: Winners: 1994 Runner Up: 1995

South Midlands Reserve Cup: Runner Up: 1998/1999, 1999/2000

Thurlow Nunn Division 1 South Play Off Winners: 2023/2024