Southall F.C. - History

History

The club was founded in 1871, and two seasons later they entered the FA Cup. After playing friendlies and cup competitions they joined the West London League as founder members in 1892, but only stayed for a single season. Four seasons later the club joined Division Two of the Southern Football League in 1896. The 1904–05 season saw the club attempt to go professional, but this left them with massive debts and they dropped out of the league at the end of the sesaon, and also stopped playing in competitions the following season. The club returning to amateur status merged with another club called Southall Athletic, and moved to a new ground called at Western Road. In 1907 the club entered the Great Western Suburban League, where they remained until the first world war, during which time they won the league once in the 1912–13 campaign.

After the first World War the club joined the Athenian League for the start of the 1919–20 season. They stayed in The Athenian league until the 1972–73 season during which time they won the league once in the 1926–27 season, two season after reaching the FA Amateur Cup final. also during their Athenian league campaignn the club reached the Third round of the FA Cup eventually losing to losing to Watford.

They became founding members of the Isthmian League Second Division for the start of the 1973–74 campaign. In their second season of the Isthmian league, they finished as runners up and gained promotion to the top division of the Isthmian league. Promotion to the top division, also saw the club change its name to Southall & Ealing. the club then spent three seasons in the top division before suffering two relegations in a row and finishing in the bottom division of the Isthmian league, this double relegation also saw the club change its name back to Southall. The club stayed in the bottom division until the end of the 1990–91 season, during this time the club reached another FA final when they lost to Halesowen Town at Wembley Stadium. When the league reorganised for the 1991–92 season the club was moved up to the new division two. However they could only spend two seasons in the higher division before being relegated back to the bottom division of the league. During which time the club lost its Western Road ground, and the club was now forced to start ground sharing with other teams. They remained in the lowest division of the Isthmian league until the end of the 1999–00 season, when, finishing bottom, they were relegated to the Combined Counties Football League.

They remained in the Combined Counties League until March 2006, when they were expelled and their records for the 2005–06 campaign expunged due to financial irregularities. However, the club was able to clear its debts and continued to operate, restarting two levels lower, in the premier division of the Middlesex County Football League from the 2006–07 season. However after the division was cut from 15 to 11 teams Southall were put in Division one Central and East, where finishing as runners up they immediately jumped back up to the premier division. In 2010 the club was taken over by Football & More ltd. At the end of the 2011–12 season, under manager Steve Embletton with the club finishing third in the Middlesex Premier Division, they were able to gain promotion to the Spartan South Midlands Football League Division one.

At the start of the 2012–13 season the club appointed Colin Brown as the new manager.