Milton Keynes City F.C.

Milton Keynes City Football Club are a defunct football club that was based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The name has been used by two^[1] English non-League football teams from the Milton Keynes area during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

First former incarnation

See also: Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes

The first version was a Southern League team founded in 1956 as Bletchley and WIPAC Football club before changing their name a year later to Bletchley Town. The club changed name again in 1974 to become Milton Keynes City.^[2] The club posted woeful finishes, never finishing in the top half of their league.^[1] The club's only real achievement was victory in the 1979–80 Berks & Bucks Senior Cup.^[3] In 1979, after yet another awful season which saw the club finish second from bottom,^[1] Ron Noades, the chairman of Wimbledon, entered talks with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1979 about the possibility of moving the south London club to Milton Keynes.^[4] At this time Noades purchased Milton Keynes City and Wimbledon directors including Sam Hammam, Bernie Coleman and Jimmy Rose became Milton Keynes City directors on top of their roles in south London. The plan was to merge the two clubs to produce a club using Wimbledon's place in the Football League under the Milton Keynes City banner. The idea was subsequently abandoned, however, and Milton Keynes City was sold on.^[5] More terrible seasons followed before the club floundered during 1984–85.^[2]

Second former incarnation

The second version only existed for a few seasons from the late 1990s, playing in the Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division. The 1990s club began as a Sunday league football club known as Mercedes-Benz Football Club,^[6] after the factory where many of the players worked. Mercedes-Benz changed their name to Milton Keynes City in 1998, and moved into Wolverton Park, which had been the home of Wolverton until their demise six years earlier. As with Wolverton, City's directors believed that they could build their club up to be accepted as representing Milton Keynes as a whole, but they never achieved this. Following the departure of the directors in June 2003,^[7] the club closed in July, unable to secure the investment needed to continue.^[8]

See also

• Current "non-league" clubs in the Milton Keynes borough

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Rundle, Richard. "Football Club History Database - Milton Keynes City". Football Club History Database. http://www.fchd.info/MILTONKC.HTM. Retrieved 2009-06-06. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Rundle, Richard. "Football Club History Database - Bletchley Town". Football Club History Database. http://www.fchd.info/BLETCHLT.HTM. Retrieved 2009-06-06. 
3. ^ "Milton Keynes City Fixtures & Results 1979/80". Aylesbury United Football Club. http://www.aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk/fixtures.php?club=193&sid=37&ssid=. Retrieved 2009-06-04. 
4. ^ Noades, Ron (2001-04-01). "I looked at MK in the 70's". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1100000/audio/_1101075_noades_dons.ram. Retrieved 2009-05-30. 
5. ^ Crabtree, Stephen (April 1996). The Dons in the League 1977-1982. Buckingham: Sporting and Leisure Press. ISBN 0860235580. 
6. ^ Rundle, Richard. "Football Club History Database - Mercedes Benz". Football Club History Database. http://www.fchd.info/MERCEDEB.HTM. Retrieved 2009-06-06. 
7. ^ "City left fighting for their survival". Milton Keynes Today. 2003-06-05. http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/sport/City-left-fighting-for-their.528192.jp. Retrieved 2009-06-04. 
8. ^ "City club on the brink of folding". Milton Keynes Today. 2003-07-03. http://www.miltonkeynestoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=416&ArticleID=554102. Retrieved 2009-06-04. ^{[dead link]}