Full name | Leamington Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | The Brakes |
Founded | 1891 (as Leamington FC) 1933 (as Leamington Borg & Beck) |
Ground | New Windmill Ground (The Phillips 66 Community Stadium), Whitnash |
Capacity | 3,000 |
Chairman | Jim Scott |
Manager | Paul Holleran |
League | Southern League Premier Division |
2015-16 | Southern League Premier Division, 5th |
Website | Club home page |
Leamington Football Club is a football club in Whitnash, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, who are currently playing in the Southern Football League.
The club was founded in 1933 as Leamington Borg & Beck, known as 'Lockheed Borg & Beck', as they became associated with a local works. The team soon became 'Lockheed Leamington', and then ' in 1973, as the works team for Automotive Products. In 1985 the club returned to their original name, but within three years the ground had been sold and the club went into hiatus until re-emerging in 2000.
With the club at its playing pinnacle, Automotive Products decided to sell the Windmill Ground in Tachbrook Road for housing. The last match was played in April 1988.
The club was relaunched in 2000 playing at the New Windmill Ground in Harbury Lane, Whitnash, (a small town adjoining Leamington to the south), and winning two successive promotions: the Midland Football Combination Division Two title in the first year and as runners-up in Division One a year later. Three years later Leamington gained promotion to the Midland Alliance. In 2005 the team beat 5 teams (with 2 replays and penalty shoot-outs) to make excellent progress in the FA Cup, gaining significant national media coverage, culminating in a 9–1 defeat to Colchester United, a professional team six leagues above Leamington, in the First Round Proper. At the start of the 2008–09 season the senior team became affiliated with Leamington Lions, the ladies team and the Leamington Junior Brakes teams. The 2012/13 season saw the club win the Southern Football League title and get promoted to the Conference North. The 2014/15 season saw the club get relegated from the Conference North to the Southern Football League.