Tilbury F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Tilbury


fullname = Tilbury Football Club
nickname = The Dockers
founded = 1900
ground = Chadfields, Tilbury
capacity = 4,000 (350 seats)
chairman = Robin Nash
manager = Graham Chester
league = Isthmian League
First Division North
season = 2007–08 | position = Isthmian League
First Division North, 20th
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pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=_unknown|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FFFFFF

Tilbury F.C. are a football club based in Tilbury, Essex, England, established in 1900. In 1976, they won the Isthmian League Second Division. In the 1977-78 season, they reached the Third Round of the FA Cup, their best performance in the competition. They currently play in the Isthmian League First Division North.

History

Tilbury F.C. was formed in 1900 and initially played in the Grays & District League, where they were champions for five seasons in a row. After World War I they played in the South Essex League. In 1926 the club gained senior status and curiously joined the Kent League a year later, but after four seasons the financial constraints of travelling to Kent for away games saw them leave this league and switch to the London League.

In 1950, buoyed by a successful FA Cup run the year before where they met Notts County, led by ex-England centre forward Tommy Lawton, losing 4-1, Tilbury joined the Corinthian League. In 1957 they switched back to the London League, where they were champions for four consecutive seasons between 1958 and 1962. After their four title win they joined the Delphian League but the 1962-63 Delphian League campaign had to be abandoned due to extensive adverse weather conditions and the league then promptly folded completely.

Tilbury next joined the Athenian League, where they won the Division two title at the first attempt, followed by the Division One title in 1968-69. In 1973, after a third-place finish in the Premier Division, they joined the newly formed Isthmian League Division Two, where they won the championship in 1975-76. In 1979-80 they were relegated from what was now called the Premier Division to the new Division One, followed by further relegation to Division Two North in 1986-87 and Division Three in 1990-91. They were promoted from Division Three at the first attempt but were relegated once again in 1997-98. In 1999-00 they were promoted once again to Division Two, then placed in Division One North when the league was re-organised in 2002. For the 2004-05 season they were switched to the Southern League, being placed in the Eastern Division, where they promptly finished bottom and were relegated to the Essex Senior League. In 2005-06 they finished third in the Essex League, sufficient to see them promoted to the Isthmian League Division One North.

Club records

*Best league performance: 14th in Isthmian League Premier Division, 1979-80
*Best FA Cup performance: 3rd round proper, 1977-78
*Best FA Amateur Cup performance: Quarter-finals, 1946-47
*Best FA Trophy performance: 3rd round proper, 1982-83
*Best FA Vase performance: 4th round, 1988-89 and 1999-00

Ground

Tilbury moved to Chadfields, a former greyhound racing venue, after World War II. Previously they had played next door at a venue known as the Orient Field, which was leased from a director of Leyton Orient, but moved out after he ruled that they could only continue using it if they became Orient's "feeder club", which they were unwilling to do. The club purchased the ground in 1949 with money raised from the sale of a player to Southend United.

Floodlights were erected in 1966, followed in 1970 by an unusual concrete stand in which spectators are located above the ground-floor dressing rooms and must look out on the action through a row of large windows. A second brick-built stand with two rows of wooden seats was added in the 1990s. The ground is also notable for a huge expanse of netting behind one goal, designed to catch balls which might otherwise fly out the ground, but placed in such a way that spectators have to look through it.

The largest attendance recorded at the ground was 5,500 for an FA Cup first round match against Gorleston in 1949, although in the modern era crowds are much more modest.

ources

*fchd|name=Tilbury|id=TILBURY
* [http://www.pyramidpassion.co.uk/html/tilbury.html Pyramid Passion feature on Chadfields]

External links

* [http://www.tilburyfc.com/ Club website] Web Editor Paul Tandy
* [http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/historysoc/TilburyFC.html History of Tilbury FC]