Arundel F.C. - History

History

Founded in 1889 and known as ‘The Mullets’ (Arundel being renowned for its mullet fishing), Arundel FC played in the West Sussex League for some 50 years, until becoming a Sussex County League side immediately after the Second World War.

County League champions two years running in 1957–58 and 1958–59, and again in 1986–87, when they also won the League Challenge Cup.

The Club has yet to repeat that level of success and were relegated in 1997–98 after finishing bottom of Division One. Up until that point, Arundel had spent 46 seasons out of 49 in the top flight of the County League.

After just two seasons in Division Two, Arundel gained promotion back to Division One, after finishing as runners-up to Sidlesham in 1999-00.

In 2003–04 the Mullets enjoyed their best season since returning to the top flight, finishing sixth in Division One (their highest position since winning the title in 1987); as well as lifting the John O’Hara League Cup by beating Rye & Iden United 2–1.

2004–05 saw Arundel finish in a respectable 9th place with some of the seasons highlights including a 7–1 win over Southwick, a 5–1 victory against Hailsham Town and a 6–1 thrashing of Sidlesham.

For the start of the new 2005–06 season a new management team has been brought into the club with new 1st team manager Vic Short and assistant managers Kevin Valentine and Simon Butler.

After guiding the club to a 7th and 3rd place finish, Short left the club before the start of the 2007–08 season to be replaced by Richard 'Kilroy' Towers, with Simon Butler staying on as his assistant with the addition of Jim Quigg to the management team. After a slow start in the league, the team's form picked up and eventually finished 3rd for the second season running. The season's highlights included a 5–0 win over Hythe Town in the FA Vase and an excellent 4–2 away win over champions Crowborough Athletic.

Towers second season in charge (2008/09) saw the club go one better by finishing as runners up, 2 points behind champions Eastbourne Utd, who the Mullets beat twice during the season.

They went into the final day of the season with a chance of claiming the title and after beating Ringmer 5–2 in an early kick off (2pm) they led the table with Eastbourne still playing at home to Redhill. 2 late goals for United though clinched a 2–0 win and saw them claim the championship.

Gary Norgate, who re-signed at the beginning of the season from Midhurst ended as the league's top scorer with 26 goals, 39 in all competitions.

At the end of 2009/2010 season, manager Richard Towers stepped down as Arundel manager after 4 years in charge, leading Arundel to two 3rd position finishes, and one runners up, before the disappointing 12th position in 2009/2010, leaving the door open for ex-professional Gary Wheatcroft to take charge, who as a player was on the books of Southampton, Bournemouth and Portsmouth while also enjoying prolific spells at county level with Chichester, where he won the Division 1 title in 1980 and Selsey where as player/manager he won the division 2 and league cup double. Gary Wheatcroft was sacked after an away defeat against Sidley United in the Senior Cup after a bad run of results. Simon Butler (Assistant Manager) was offered the position of manager and took over with Dave Hall (Player/Coach) as his assistant.