Southam United
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| Full name | Southam United Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Saints |
| Founded | 1905 |
| Ground | Banbury Road Southam |
| 2016–17 | Midland League Division One, 20th of 20 (resigned) |
Southam United F.C. is a football club situated in the small market town of Southam, Warwickshire which for season 2017–18 is not running a senior team but has 10 junior teams entered in the Coventry & Warwickshire Youth League.
Known as the “Saints”, they celebrated their Centenary in 2005, having been founded in 1905 following the amalgamation of two village teams. From 1947 to 1956 the club dominated the Coventry and North Warwickshire League. They took the step up to the Midland Combination in 1980–81 and immediately won the Division Three title. When the League was reorganised in 1983–84, United were placed in the Premier Division, but after several seasons of struggle they were downgraded to Division Two when it was discovered that their pitch was now too short owing to the construction of a bowling green next to it. Finally in 1995–96 United made it back to the Premier Division after two promotions in seven years.
The 1997–98 season was the Saints' most successful as they finished as Premier Division runners up and also won the Birmingham County FA Vase with a 3–0 victory over Shirley Town, but league form since then has been disappointing, with four successive finishes in the bottom two between 2001 and 2004 seeing relegation only staved off each time by a lack of teams with acceptable facilities to be promoted.
In 2001, Saints merged with Southam Town Junior Sports Club, a progressive junior club formed in 1972, which amongst other achievements, pioneered ladies and girls football in Warwickshire.
Although finishing in 15th place in the 2009–10 seasons, Saints had finished 3rd in each of the previous two seasons and, in addition, won the Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Cup in 2008–09 with a 3–1 win over Darlaston Town and won the Coventry Evening Telegraph Cup in 2010-11 with victory at the Ricoh Arena over Alvis.
Recent seasons have seen several other cup final appearances but generally disappointing league performances and results and a rock bottom finish in Division One of the Midland Football League in 2016-17.
The junior part of the club continues to develop with various of the teams winning competitions and Fair Play awards.
All-time leading goal scorer and also record appearance holder is Bob Hancocks, who first played for the team when he was 15 years old and in his career at the Saints scored over 1,200 goals and in one season he scored 18 hat tricks. Season 1960–61 was his heyday for the club when he scored 85 goals and the team scored 115 and only conceded 23. In second place in the all-time leading scorers is James Claridge, who whilst playing for the club between 2008 and 2011 scored 87 goals.
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