Sporting Khalsa F.C.
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| Full name | Sporting Khalsa Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Sporting |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Ground | Aspray Arena, Noose Lane, Willenhall |
| Capacity | 5,000 |
| Manager | Ian Rowe |
| League | Midland League Premier Division |
| 2015–16 | Midland League Premier Division, 3rd |
Sporting Khalsa Football Club are a football club, formed in 1991, members of the Midland League Premier Division, who play their home games at the Aspray Arena ground on Noose Lane in Willenhall, West Midlands. Being founded by the local Sikh community, they are the first British Asian club to own their own ground, which they bought from Willenhall Town in 2010 after moving from Abbey Park, the former home of Bloxwich Town.
The team was founded in 1991 and began playing in the Walsall & District Sunday leagues. They played one season in the West Midlands (Regional) League in 1996–97 before leaving after finishing bottom of the league. They later returned in 2004–05 and were promoted after finishing 5th.
In 2011, Sporting Khalsa were promoted to the Premier Division of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division. Following this success, they formed an U21s team, which plays in the Midland Combination U2ls league. In terms of their youth-setup they have a couple of teams in the Midland Junior Premier League as well. Altogether they have 15 teams from U21s to u-7s.Majority of their junior teams play in the Walsall minor league. The links between the first team and junior Khalsa teams are very strong with many junior team players being involved during the 1st team's games.
At the end of the 2012–13 season, Sporting Khalsa redeveloped their ground: changing the size of the pitch, building a new stand, creating new changing rooms and renovating the outside of the pitch & clubhouse. Following this, in the 2013–14 season guided under the management of Mark Holdcroft, Sporting Khalsa finished in 6th position, their highest finish to date. After this, Holdcroft and Sporting Khalsa decided to part company by mutual consent. Shortly after this, Sporting Khalsa appointed Ian Rowe, who guided Gornal Athletic to the Midland Alliance in the 2011–12 season, as manager. The 2014–15 season was very successful with Khalsa winning the West Midlands (Regional) League title by 27 points, finishing on a record 117 points and securing promotion to the Midland Football League Premier Division in the process. In 2015-16 they reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup where they lost 3-1 at home to F.C. United of Manchester.
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