History
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 spent the next twenty years yo-yoing 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.
In the 2009–10 season the club then joined the Isthmian League in Division One North, finishing in 8th place, however the club was demoted at the end of the season back to the Kent league. The reason the club was demoted was because their ground was not up to the desired standard of the Isthmian league, as the hard path around the pitch was 1 metre wide and not 2 metres. This was met with some controversy as the club had believed that the work were on course to complete this work by the original stated deadline, but then the league decided to bring that deadline forward for reasons unknown. The club continues to play in the Kent premier league.
Read more about this topic: VCD Athletic F.C.
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