Club History
14 Feb 2006

The clubs first site was known as the Great Ground at the junction of Locking Road and Hutton Moor Road, this has now since been developed as a private housing estate. The Football Club came into being after players in the former Weston Aircraft side had suggested at their AGM that a team bearing the town's name should be formed.

So Mr Ted Recardo who was running the Aircraft Side, approached a member of the then Borough Council Mr George Cooper, who responded enthusiastically to the idea and became the founder chairman. At first friendly matches were played and players changed at the rear of a garage opposite the Locking Road Ground.

The first record of a Weston-super-Mare side in a competitive match was in the 1887/88 season when they lost to local rivals Clevedon Town 2-1 in a Medal Competition organised by the Somerset FA. The following year Weston were members of a "County Committee" of the Somerset FA.

Weston's first cup win was in March 1911 when the beat Clevedon 3-0 in the Weston Charity Cup. In 1913/14 they finished third in the Bristol Charity League Bath City and Bristol Rovers Reserves.

In 1922/23 they played in a Bristol and District League coming second behind Bristol Leather Trades winning 17 and drawing 6 of their 28 games. That season they also won the Bristol Charity Cup beating Clevedon 8-2 in the final on the 5th May 1923 at Yatton's Football Ground.

The third Cup victory was in the 1926/27 season when they won the Somerset Senior Cup defeating Paulton Rovers 3-2 in the semi-finals after starting with only nine men because two players had been sent bogus telegrams advising that the match was off. They went on to defeat Welton Rovers in front of a 6,000 crowd.

They were also finalists that year in the Clevedon Charity Cup losing 5-1 to Clevedon. In those days Weston players were played half a crown (12p) to play.

Clevedon again beat Weston in the replay of the 1936/37 Somerset Senior League knock out cup after drawing 1-1 in the first match.

As in the Great War, Weston were disbanded for the Second World War.

The present club reformed in 1948, a meeting at the town hall decided to form a Semi-Professional Club. A committee was formed to look into the possibility of buying the Locking Road Ground which as the time it was thought it could be acquired for around £4,000.

In the following months the club were elected into the Western League division 2 in company with Barnstaple Town and a new club Chippenham United.

Weston played their home matches at the "Great Ground" in Locking Road where they regularly attracted attendances of over 1,000 and even for a friendly against local side Langford Rovers over 600 turned up. The first league game at home attracted some 1500 fans, the changing accommodation being in a large marquee. There was no cover for spectators but enthusiasm ran high and crowds rolled along. The first league match was away to Chippenham United a side which included 7 professionals some of them former football league players. Weston were beaten 6-1 but it should be noted that the Chippenham side proved too strong for most opponents that season and was a really formidable combination.

The first Weston win at Locking Road came against Cinderford Town and was followed by the first away win at Stonehouse. A further boost came with the formation of the supporters club in 1948 with the late Mr Sam Wooding as its first Secretary.
The club spent most of the 1950's in the second division going close to promotion on a couple of occasions before the Division was disbanded although it was not always easy going in 1951/52 Bideford beat Weston 11-0.

The move to the Langford Road Ground came in time for the 1955/56 and the first game saw Weston trounce Peasedown 7-0.

In 1960/61, along with Trowbridge Town, Exeter City Reserves and Welton Rovers were elected to Division 1 of the Western Football League, Weston held the unique distinction of never winning promotion or suffering relegation.

The first modern taste of cup glory came in 1961 when Weston reached the First Round Proper of the FA cup ending in bitter disappointment as they were beaten by local rivals Bridgewater Town in the re-play before a home crowd of 2,5000. It was not Weston's day as after having what looked like a good goal disallowed on a hairline offside decision, Weston went down by that goal scored minutes from the end. They missed a slum home tie against Crystal Palace who were then in Division 3 of the Football League.

At Langford Road the set up was a great improvement of that at the "Great Ground". Apart from the changing accommodation for the players, a licensed Social Club was eventually established in what had been a large Nissan Hut.
This had been reinforced externally and at a latter stage a Skittle Alley was built alongside the Social Club.

A period of success began in the 1975/76 season with the arrival of Kim Book as team manager. During the seven seasons under his control and that of his successor Dave Stone, Weston reached 2nd place in the league, won the League Cup and also won the Western Senior Cup on 5 occasions. Only once did they finish lower than the top 10 and in 1980/81 they reached the Western League Goldliner Cup Final only losing 2-1 to Dawlish Town.

In the 1983-84 season Weston moved to a new ground Woodspring Park which was built almost entirely from by supporters. The Woodspring Park ground had been greatly developed since with a club house costing £100,000 and floodlights installed in 1986.

One personality of mention at the club is Harry Thomas who played more than 700 games for them and eventually managed the team between 1984 and 1989 having been associated with the club for 25 years.

In 1989 John Ellener was appointed Manager and in 3 seasons he took the club to 2 Cup Finals and for the first time since they were reformed, Weston won the Western League Championships and were promoted to the Southern League Midland Division.

In 1993 team coach Peter Amos replaced John Ellener as Manager and guided the club to 11th position in their first season in the Midland Division. A club record was set at the beginning of the 1993/94 season with an undefeated run of 10 matches, the "seagulls" flight ended on a 4-1 defeat by VS Rugby. The run also included an appearance in the First Round proper of the FA Cup for only the second time in the clubs history, being drawn against non-league Woking. History repeated itself Weston drawing 2-2 at Woking before losing in the replay at Woodspring Park in front of a crowd of 2,623 supporters a new ground record. A new record was also achieved that season by getting into the First Round proper of the FA Trophy in the same season. In that same season the league record attendance was broken with a 1,260 gate against Clevedon Town. 91 points were collected in the league but promotion was missed out by 1 point to runners up VS Rugby.

During that season Matt Lazenby wrote his name into the seagull’s history book by becoming the highest goal scorer with 180 goals. His partnership with Paul Elson had netted over 300 goals in just 6 seasons.

1994/95 was less successful and resulted in the recruitment of Len Ashurst who took the side to 4th place in his first season. This success was affected in the following season due to enforced budget cut. The sale of Danny O'Hagan to Dorchester and Stuart Jones to Sheffield Wednesday for a club record fee of £20,000, this left the need for team rebuilding and saw the club finish in a disappointing 19th place.

The start of the 1998-99 saw the promotion of John Relish and a move back to the Midland division. The season started poorly with a run in the FA Trophy to the 4th round against Hitchin Town. Defeat saw the club miss out on a plum home tie against Conference side Forest Green Rovers.

In the league the side plunged to the bottom 3 of the table but an improvement in consistency from Christmas 1998 produced a string of good results which could have resulted in a top six finish if the run had started at the start of the season. During this season Weston made yet another sale this time Ryan Souter went to Bury.

In 2000 Weston secured the purchase of the Westlands Site only a stone's throw away from Woodspring Park. The plans are to create a new purpose built stadium incorporating a 250 seater stand with integral bar and entertainment facilities with a first class pitch and dressing rooms. The aim of the club is to progress to the Premier Division of the Dr. Martens League and in the longer term the Nationwide Conference.

At the end of October 2001 the board decided that to achieve their ambitions of being promoted to the Dr. Martens League Premier Division it was time for a new progressive management team. As an interim measure, Director of football Alan White took over first team affairs from John Relish and his staff.
The board appointed Frank Gregan in November although due to his contract commitments with Aberystwyth, he did not take up the position until 23rd February 2002, in the meantime his assistant Chris Smith took control of first team affairs and confidence is high both on and off the field of play that the clubs ambitions will be met in the near future.

In the 2002-2003 season the club made history when they won promotion to the Dr. Martens League Premier Division finish runners up in the Dr. Martens League Western Division behind Merthyr Tydfil. Weston won promotion following a 1-0 win at local rivals Clevedon Town.

In the 2003-04 season the club had a very successful time gaining entry into the newly formed Nationwide Conference South Division. The team also reached the Second round of the FA Cup proper for the first time in their history losing in the end to Northampton Town away 4-1. A home tie against Rotherham United would have been the next opponents. A tremendous run in the FA Trophy also ended when the team lost 4-2 to Telford United away in the 4th Round. Farnborough Town and Gravesend and Northfleet were amongst Conference scalps during the two campaigns.

August 14th 2004 saw the opening game against Hornchurch at the current Woodspring Stadium. In Weston's first season in the new division they finished a credible 11th with 58 points.

After the 2006-07 season the Seagulls seemed doomed for Relegation, the first time in their history. However, Farnborough Town were relegated and Hayes and Yeading merged to form Hayes & Yeading United, leaving the Conference one team short, earning a reprieve for Weston.

The 2007-08 season ended in a similar way. A 20th place finish meant the club was eligible for relegation, only to be spared by the enforced demotion of Cambridge City, who failed a ground inspection.

2008/09 season Weston finished a respectable 17th after what seemed to be an impressive start to the season. Weston failed to beat Chesham United in the FA Cup and then were beaten by AFC Sudbury in the FA Trophy in late November. The Seagulls season from this point took an uneasy dip towards the relegation zone. Tony Ricketts left the sinking ship and it was left to caretaker manager Andy Gurney to lift the team to 17th position.

In 2009/10 season Andy Gurney was named as 1st team Manager, The start of season started well for Gurney with victories over local sides Worcester City and Weymouth. But again the Seagulls found it difficult to pull away from the bottom half of the table and with the loss of Marc McGregor to Worcester City, Jack Compton to Falkirk and Adie Harris to Bath City. It became an all too familiar path. With relegation already confirmed Weston travelled to Havant & Waterlooville and were thrashed 6-0 their worst defeat for some 35 years. The Following day Gurney left Woodspring Stadium and it was left to Youth Team manager Ryan Northmore to manage the two remaining games. The 2009/10 season became Weston’s worst on record having won only 5 matches and gained 23points Weston-super-Mare finished 21st.

With renewed hope in their Wings, and a new manager at Woodspring Stadium it is hoped that the 2010/11 season can be one that Weston fans can rejoice in again.