West Essex F.C.

West Essex
Full name West Essex Football Club
Founded 1989
Ground Mayesbrook Park, Barking
Ground Capacity 2,500 (200 seated)
Chairman Peter Barnes
Manager Kwame Kwateng
League Essex Senior League
2015–16 Middlesex County League Premier Division, 1st (promoted)

West Essex F.C. is an English football club based in Highams Park in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The club's first team play in the Essex Senior League.

Ground

West Essex play their home games at the home ground of Barking F.C., Mayesbrook Park in Dagenham.

History

West Essex FC are based in Highams Park, East London. The club caters for players of all ages and abilities with 2 senior sides, 2 veteran’s sides, a Sunday team and a successful and rapidly expanding colts section. The 1st team have recently entered a ground share agreement with Barking FC, The Reserves play at Fairlop and Vets sides continue to use the Rolls Sports Ground in Highams Park.

The brainchild of former West Essex Cricket Club stalwart John Spinks, West Essex FC formed in 1989. Initially the objective was to keep some of the Cricket Club members in touch throughout the winter and generate a bit of much-needed income through the club bar on a Saturday afternoon.

After 4 seasons of considerable success in the Ilford & District League, an 'A' team was added for the 1993-94 season and the 1st & Reserve teams moved to the Essex Business Houses League.

As we entered the new millennium, founder John Spinks left for the Emerald Isle and current Chairman Stuart Higson took over the day-to-day running of the club. The junior and Veterans sections continued to perform well, but success was harder to come by for the senior sides.

In 2007-08, the 1st XI effectively folded and the club ran one senior side which finished rock-bottom of the EBHFL Division 1. Towards the end of that season, Gary Lefley became involved with the side. Gary forged a strong partnership with existing player/manager Dan Reading and their first full season together proved to be a very successful one as West Essex lifted the EBHFL Division 1 title in 2008-09.

With success came an influx of new players and we were fortunate enough to reinstate the Reserve team who, under the guidance of Wesley Sotherton, won a trophy in their first season. The resulting celebrations culminated in them actually losing the trophy, but that’s a story for another day.

At the end of the 2009-10 season, the management took the decision to withdraw the 1st XI from the Essex Business Houses League and move them to the Middlesex County Football League. The season that followed will live long in the memory as, in May 2011, it culminated with another trophy being added to the cabinet as West Essex were crowned champions of the MCFL Division 1 Central & East.

Promoted as Champions, in August 2011 West Essex had their first taste of Step 7 Football. Despite the season being blighted by injuries and suspensions, they finished it stationed safely in mid-table and took a few memorable scalps along the way.

Further progress was made in 2012/13 as West Essex consolidated their MCFL Premier Division status with another mid-table finish, but with a bigger points total and a better record in all departments. Towards the end of the season new coach Kwame Kwateng joined with a view to adding some style to our obvious substance.

2013/14 was a memorable season for the club. Injuries, poor form and some appalling luck saw us staring down the barrel of relegation at the turn of the year. Thankfully, due in no small part to the tireless work of one of the most enthusiastic coaches around and a return to fitness of some key players, a team which had such obvious potential finally started to deliver. A fantastic run of form saw us finish the season sitting comfortably in mid-table and emerging victorious in the Alec Smith Premier Division Cup final. Lifting the trophy was an incredible achievement for everyone involved with West Essex FC and that evening in Uxbridge will live long in the memory. In 2014/15, we continued to make progress by attaining our highest ever MCFL Premier Division finish of 6th. We also gained more points, scored more goals and conceded less than in any previous season.

In 2015/16, with a ground-share agreement in place, West Essex took the decision to apply for promotion from the MCFL. That decision was vindicated when the Highams Park exiles didn’t lose a game from August 8th until January 2nd which included a record-breaking run of 11 straight victories. A successful run in the Essex Premier Cup nearly derailed our league campaign and our second appearance in 3 years in the Alec Smith Cup Final, you might argue, was another unwanted distraction. West lost the Alec Smith Final on pens having been 2 nil up with less than 30 mins to go. On the coach back from the final, devastated as they were, a chorus of “WE’RE GONNA WIN THE LEAGUE!!” broke out. 14 days later, that’s exactly what they did. After losing to New Hanford on April 9th, West took 23 of the 27 points available to take the title from under LPOSSA’s noses. We were crowned champions of the MCFL Premier Division. In doing so, we guaranteed promotion to the Essex Senior League.

Honours

References

    External links

    Coordinates: 51°32′51.39″N 0°06′41.23″E / 51.5476083°N 0.1114528°E / 51.5476083; 0.1114528

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