VCD Athletic F.C.
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| Full name | VCD Athletic Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Vickers |
| Founded | 1916 (as Vickers (Erith)) |
| Ground | The Oakwood Old Road Crayford |
| Capacity | 1180 |
| Chairman | Gary Rump |
| Manager | Keith McMahon |
| League |
Isthmian League Division One North |
| 2015–16 |
Isthmian League Premier Division, 24th (Relegated) |
VCD Athletic Football Club (short for Vickers, Crayford & Dartford Athletic Football Club) are a semi-professional football club based in Crayford in south-east London, England. They were founded in 1916, during the First World War, as a company team by employees of the now defunct Vickers armaments factory in Crayford. The club are currently members of the Isthmian League.
VCD Athletic was formed in 1916 by workers at the Vickers armaments factory at Crayford, originally as Vickers (Erith) FC, and joined the original Kent League upon the resumption of play after World War I. In their first season they had the advantage of picking a number of Arsenal players who were completing their war service at the works.
In 1921 the club joined the Dartford and District League, before joining the newly formed Kent Amateur League in 1925, where they were to remain for over 70 years. They won the championship in 1953 and 1964 but then spent the next twenty years yo-yoing erratically between Division One and Division Two. In 1984 they were promoted back to Division One for the final time, and just one year later won the Championship and joined the restructured Premier Division of what was now called the Kent County League.
In the 1996–97 season VCD won the Premier Division title by a record 15 points, successfully applied for senior status, and were accepted into the Kent League. They showed an improvement over the previous season for their first five seasons at this level, culminating in a second-place finish in 2002–03 when, after leading the table for most of the season, they narrowly lost out on the championship on goal difference. Despite a mass exodus of players after this, the club has continued to do well and consistently finish in the league's top half dozen. They also appeared in three consecutive League Cup finals, winning the trophy in 1999–2000 with a 4–0 victory over Faversham Town. In the 2007–08 season team captain Paul Foley stepped up to become manager and guided the club to 2nd place in the Kent League before going one better in the 2008–09 season securing the league title and Kent Senior Trophy in only his second season in charge.
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