Full name | Burnham Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The Blues |
Founded | 1878 |
Ground |
The Gore Burnham Buckinghamshire |
Capacity | 2,500 |
Chairman | Gary Reeves |
Manager | Mark Betts and Jon Palmer (Joint Managers) |
League | Hellenic League Premier Division |
2015–16 | Southern League Division One South & West, 21st (relegated) |
Burnham F.C. is a non-League football club from Burnham in Buckinghamshire, near Slough. They currently compete in the Hellenic League Premier Division. The team play in blue and white shirts and white shorts. The club's chairman is Gary Reeves. Home matches are played at The Gore. The Gore has been recently redeveloped, with a new stand and facilities.
The club was founded in 1878, and so Burnham FC is the second oldest club in Buckinghamshire. The club spent its first years in various local leagues, and then joined the Great Western Combination league in 1948. 16 years later they moved to the Wycombe Combination in 1964 and then spent one year in the Reading Combination for the 1970–71 season.
The team first joined a senior league in 1971 when they entered the Hellenic Football League Division One A, finishing as runners-up in their first season, followed by a runners-up position in Division One which saw them promoted to the Premier Division. In 1975–76 they were Premier Division champions. In 1977 they switched to the Athenian League, where they achieved two runners-up finishes, and also reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase.
In 1984 Burnham switched leagues to the London Spartan League, where they were champions at the first attempt. The following year the club merged with Hillingdon Borough to form Burnham & Hillingdon F.C., taking over Hillingdon's place in the Southern League. In 1987 the club's name reverted simply to Burnham F.C. but performances on the pitch declined and the 1994–95 season saw the club relegated back to the Hellenic League. In four seasons back at this level the club never finished out of the top 5, resulting in promotion back to the Southern League in 1999, where they remain to this day, although due to the renaming and restructuring of divisions they have technically played in three different divisions without ever being relegated or promoted.
Burnham have had modest success in cup competitions. Their best run in the FA Vase came in the 1982–83 season where they lost to Halesowen Town in a two legged semi-final (the home match being the clubs highest recorded attendance). In 1999–2000 they reached the 4th round of the FA Trophy where they drew Scarborough, then residing in the Conference (they had also recently been relegated from the Football League). Burnham managed a 1–1 draw at home before losing 6–0 in the replay. In the 2005–06 season Dave Mudge's Burnham side achieved their best run in the FA Cup, losing 3–1 at home to Aldershot Town in the 1st round proper. The game was watched by one of the biggest crowds at Burnham in recent years and even saw Burnham appear briefly on Match of the Day.