Full name | St. Leonards Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The Saints |
Founded | 1971 (reformed in 2014) |
Dissolved | 2003 |
Ground | The Firs, Hastings |
2003–04 | Sussex County League Division One, Resigned |
St. Leonards F.C. Is a semi-professional English football club based in Hastings, East Sussex.
The club was founded as a works team in 1971 by employees from the Sussex Turnery And Moulding Company started playing friendlies, under the company name of STAMCO. They were admitted into Division 5 (East) of the Eastbourne & Hastings Football League for the 1971–72 season and by 1976 had progressed to Intermediate status in 1976 and had reached the Premier Division the following year.
For the 1982–83 season STAMCO joined the Southern Counties Combination, winning Division Two in their first season. Within the next three seasons the club had won two Premier Division Championships and were promoted into Division Three of the Sussex County League in 1988. The gained senior status after earning promotion into Division Two by finishing Runners-Up in the League and Cup. In the 1992–93 season they won promotion into Division One as Runners-up after missing out on the Championship on the final day of the season.
Their first season in Division One saw them finish in 9th place and reach the semi-finals of the Sussex Senior Cup, the next two seasons they finished Runners-up to Peacehaven & Telscombe and they won promotion to the Southern League for the 1996–97 season. However before they were accepted into the Southern League, the league required that the club, who were by now playing at The Firs, changed their name to reflect the club's geographical location. The club's two main sponsors, STAMCO and Croft Glass, were fused into the new name, the result was St. Leonards Stamcroft. The 1996–97 season saw the club finish runners up to Forest Green and won the Sussex Senior Cup, beating Saltdean United 2–1 in the final.