Bristol Manor Farm F.C.

Bristol Manor Farm

Full name	Bristol Manor Farm Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Farm
Founded	1960
Ground	The Creek, Bristol
Chairman	Geoff Sellek
Manager	John Black
League	Western Football League Premier Division
2008–09	Western Football League Premier Division, 5th
Home colours

Bristol Manor Farm F.C. is an English football team who play in the Western Football League. They play their home games at The Creek, Bristol.

Club History

Bristol Manor Farm Football Club was formed for the 1960/61 season. After just one season, the club was disbanded but was later reformed and began playing again in the 1962/63 season. Their current home at ‘The Creek’ used to be the site of the Port of Bristol Authority Sports & Social Club and when they moved to new premises, Manor Farm too it over in 1967.

This enabled the club to apply successfully to join the Somerset Senior League where they were to progress rapidly through the divisions before deciding to advance further to the Western League in 1977. The club was to join the First Division for the 1977-78 season and remained there until the 1982-83 season when they won the First Division championship and gained promotion to the Premier Division, until relegation under Pete McCall's management team in 2001- 02. In 1983-84 they were to reach the final of the G.F.A. Challenge Trophy where they went down to Hellenic League side Shortwood United. They were also to lose in the final a few years later when they lost to Mangotsfield United, but the trophy did make its way to the Creek in 1987-88.

The pitch at the Creek has always been notorious for its sloping surface but work has been undertaken in recent years to eliminate the slope. This caused the club many problems initially, but they now appear to have achieved their aim. With seating and floodlights added since 1980, the club now boasts excellent facilities alongside a spacious clubhouse. For many years, Mike Fisher was manager at the Creek and brought the club much success, success that was carried on by Chris Rex. After a spell under former Bristol City player Alan Crawford, Chris Rex returned to the hot seat but parted company with the club during the summer of 1997, to be replaced by the management team of Geoff Bryant and John Black. Pete McCall was appointed manager for the 2001-02 season, which was to prove a particularly difficult one, with changes in administration, poor results and Pete himself leaving just before the end of the season. The result of all this upheaval was that the first team was relegated to the First Division.

2002-03 season saw Geoff Bryant back in charge, assisted by Steve Beecham, but after nine games of poor results they decided to resign. In their place came Shaun Bond as manager and Nicky Johns as coach. In addition we had a ladies team, no longer with us, managed by Terry Buffery, a return to the old club colours, new administration with Jon Scriven as secretary and a change of direction for the reserve team to the Suburban League with Steve Camm in the managers hot seat assisted by Nick Baldwin. The season also saw the return of the youth team, managed by Mike Shopland and Steve Wailer. With a new 100 seater stand named after our chairman Geoff Sellek , who has guided the club off the pitch and help from then vice-chairman Charlie Baldwin the club were again heading in the right direction.

This was proved the following season when the first team regained Premier Division status and the youth team also enjoyed success with promotion to the Somerset Floodlight Youth League Premier Division. The beginning of the 2004/05 season saw Manor Farm riding high at the top of the table for the first couple of months before dropping off the pace by Christmas. Their early season form never returned which eventually saw the departure of manager Shaun Bond from the club and the appointment of former Clevedon Town boss Steve Fey, although he mainly took a back seat until the last few games of the season allowing players Matt Baird and Mark Buxton to take on a dual caretaker-manager role. Seventh place was still a satisfactory final position despite their blistering start to the campaign and the success of the reserves in gaining promotion to the Suburban League Premier Two under Charlie Baldwin, as well as an impressive year for the youth team under Dale Dempsey and Andy Marshall in finishing third in the league and being losing finalists to Paulton Rovers in the Somerset Floodlight Youth Cup meant that the future was looking bright.

Only three of the previous squad remained for the start of the 2005/06 season as the appointment of former Brislington boss Nigel Gillard as assistant to Steve Fey heralded the start of a new era at Bristol Manor Farm. Their management brought Manor Farm its highest ever league position of 3rd place in the Premier division and this success resulted in an application from the club to join the Southern League which was turned down. Geoff Bryant rescued the youth teams season by taking charge after previous manager Dale Dempsey resigned just before the first league game. After keeping the team in the Premier division Geoff was rewarded by leading them to cup glory, defeating Mangotsfield United 3-0 in the Somerset Floodlight Youth League cup final.

Steve Fey resigned as manager at the end of the 2006/07 season and John Black took up the reins as manager assisted by Geoff Bryant with Richard Thomas taking over as Youth Team Manager. The club also had a new club secretary, Andy Radford, who answered an advert in the Bristol Evening post. The season also saw the club benefit from the introduction of a website, which many consider to be one of the best in the league.

The 2007/08 season was difficult from the start. No manager and no team. Many of the players from the previous season left the club to join other teams. It was always going to be tough going and the opening game of the season against Barnstaple showed how far the team had to go having suffered a 5-0 loss. By the end of the season however, the team had settled down and began to show the makings of a good team. And so the season ended with the club finishing 16th in the Premier Division. No mean feat considering the circumstances in which John Black and Geoff Bryant had taken over.

The 2008-09 season kicked off with an unbeaten run of ten league matches, three draws and seven wins. During this period Manor Farm also won games in the FA Vase, Gloucestershire Challenge Trophy and Somerset Premier Cup. It was unfortunate that after such a good away win against Fareham Town in the FA Vase, that Bristol Manor Farm were removed from the competition for fielding an ineligible player. In September, assistant manager Geoff Bryant left the club after many years of service and in stepped Andy Davies. In the opening round of the FA Cup they were knocked out by Bicester Town who scored the only goal. But by the end of October, Manor Farm were topping the league and scoring goals for fun. January saw John Black awarded with the Manager of the Month and the team were still in three cup competitions. But come March, the season started to take a turn for the worse when the team were knocked out in the quarter final stages of both the Gloucestershire Challenge Trophy and the Somerset Premier Cup. But there was still hope for a trophy with the semi-final of the Les Phillips Cup to come. But this was not to be as they were knocked out by a single goal to Oldland Abbotonians. Manor Farm ended their league campaign in fifth place – eleven places higher than the previous season!

Reserve and Youth Teams

The reserve team has played in the Bristol & Suburban League since gaining promotion to the Premier Division 2 in the 2004/05 season. The youth team, who were formed in 2003, achieved promotion in their inaugural season to the Somerset Floodlight Youth League Premier Division and were beaten Somerset Cup finalists in 2005. The youth team won the Somerset Cup the following year [2006] beating Mangotsfield United in the Final.

Having spent two seasons in the Gloucestershire County Youth League, the team moved back to the Somerset Floodlight Youth League for 2009/10 under new manager Richard Trott.

Club details

• First team manager: John Black
• Assistant manager: Andy Davies
• Biggest victory: 9-0 versus Weston St Johns in the Les Phillips Cup. Tuesday 29 January 2008.

References

• Bristol Manor Farm at the Football Club History Database

http://www.bristolmanorfarm.com Official Website

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