Guildford City
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| Full name | Guildford City Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Sweeney, The City |
| Founded | in 1921 (as Guildford United); re-formed in 1996 (as A.F.C. Guildford) |
| Ground | Spectrum Football Ground, Guildford |
| Capacity | 1,000 |
| Chairman | Mark Redhead |
| Manager | Dean Thomas |
| League | Combined Counties League Premier Division |
| 2015–16 | Combined Counties League Premier Division, 14th |
Guildford City Football Club (formerly Guildford United and AFC Guildford) is a football club based in Guildford, Surrey, England. The club was established in 1921, folded in 1974 and were reformed in 1996. Guildford City play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division.
The first club in the town was amateur side Guildford, formed in 1877 and known as the “Pinks”. They played home matches at the Woodbridge Road Sports Ground. A successful start led to a number of people mooting a new professional club and by the end of 1920 Guildford United was formed. In May 1921 they were accepted into the Southern League, the equivalent of the National League today. At the same time land had been purchased in Joseph’s Road and “United” were able to kick-off the 1921–22 season with a home game against Reading Reserves. Playing in green and white the hosts won 2–0 with a crowd of over 5,000 spectators.
In 1927 Guildford became a diocese and the Guildford Cathedral was built. It was believed that Guildford would become a city so the club changed its name and the “City” was born. At this time they also changed the colours to red and white stripes.
Although they had little early success in the League, the FA Cup bought a taste of glory in 1928–29 when, having battled through the qualifying rounds, they beat Queens Park Rangers 4–2 in the First Round Proper and in front of a crowd of nearly 8,000.
Despite excellent gates the club was facing a financial crisis at the end of the season – this was to be a recurrent theme throughout the club’s history. At the start of the 1936–37 season the club made the massive decision to turn full-time professional, appointing Haydn Green as manager. That season they finished 4th but next season things got even better.
In 1937–38 City beat Reading in the FA Cup but in the league they won 22 of their 34 games to finish as Champions for the first time. That feat was nearly repeated the following year, with City finishing runners-up to Colchester United by one point, scoring 126 goals in the process. In the league game at home to Colchester on Easter Monday City won 3–1 in front of the largest crowd ever for a league game at Joseph’s Road 9,443. Earlier that season City had attracted an even bigger crowd to Joseph’s Road for an FA Cup 1st Round Replay against local rivals Aldershot. 9,932 people saw City lose a nail-biting game 4–3.
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