{"id":3046,"date":"2025-08-23T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/?page_id=3046"},"modified":"2025-09-17T21:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T21:44:18","slug":"club-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/?page_id=3046","title":{"rendered":"Club History"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Downham town football club <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A BRIEF HISTORY<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Downham Town Football Club, nicknamed “The Saints,” is one of the oldest football clubs in Norfolk, having been formed in 1881. Until 1952, the team was picked by a committee.<\/p>

Originally, the club played junior football in the King’s Lynn<\/b> area before taking up senior status by being elected into the Premier Division of the Peterborough League in the 1949\/50 season.<\/p>

After winning the Peterborough League title in 1987\/88<\/b>, the club moved to the newly formed Jewson Eastern Counties League Division One, which later became the Thurlow Nunn League.<\/p>

The team played in Division One North until winning promotion to the Premier Division by way of the play-offs in the 2022\/23 season.<\/p>

In the 2023\/24<\/b> season, the team won the Norfolk Senior Cup for the first time in almost 60<\/b> years. Then, in 2024\/25<\/b>, the team once again secured promotion via the play-offs, advancing to Step 4 where they will play in the Isthmian League North.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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CLUB HONOURS<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Town won the Peterborough Premier League title in 1962\/63, 1973\/74<\/b> (The provided text has a typo, it should be 1973\/74), 1986\/87<\/b>, and 1987\/88<\/b> (The provided text has a typo, it should be 1987\/88) and the Peterborough Senior Cup in 1961\/62, 1962\/63, 1966\/67, 1971\/72, and 1986\/87. The club also won the Norfolk Senior Cup in 1963\/64 and 1965\/66.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Record Win, defeat and players with most appearences <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Downham’s record win, as far as is known, was a 15-0<\/b> victory against Bury Town Reserves in the 1993\/94<\/b> season. This was a Jewson League record.<\/p>

The record defeat, also as far as is known, was in 1992<\/b> when an Arsenal XI came to town to celebrate the switching on of the new floodlights. Arsenal won\u00a0 \u00a0 14-1.<\/p>

Rocky Lewis and Matty Calvert have both played over 500<\/b> times for the Town.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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A Managerial timeframe<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This timeline was compiled with the help of several long-serving past and present members of the football club. It is as accurate as they could agree on since no official records are available.<\/p>

Percy Hooper<\/b> 1952\u201353: Ex-Tottenham Hotspur Goalkeeper<\/p>

George Heagren<\/b> 1953\u20131969<\/p>

Tony Chilleystone<\/b> 1969\u20131972<\/p>

Colin Dye<\/b> 1973\u20131976<\/p>

Glen Andrews<\/b> 1976\u20131977<\/p>

John Button<\/b> 1977\u20131980<\/p>

Dominic McCullum<\/b> 1980\u20131981<\/p>

Rocky Lewis<\/b> 1981\u20131989: Rocky Lewis had played in goal for the Town for 12 seasons, missing just 3 games. He was in charge when the team won the Peterborough Premier League to gain promotion to the Eastern Counties League Division One.<\/p>

Pete Bush<\/b> 1989\u20131991: Pete had been Rocky’s assistant for a few years before taking on the role.<\/p>

Freddie Easthall and Steve Bunting<\/b> 1991\u20131993<\/p>

Rocky Lewis<\/b> 1993: A very short time in temporary charge.<\/p>

David Batch<\/b> 1993\u20131995: At the time of David’s appointment, he was the youngest-ever manager in senior football, aged 21.<\/p>

Steve Tyers<\/b> 1995\u20132002<\/p>

Gary McGinn and Andrew Knott<\/b> 2002\u20132003: Gary and Andrew had been Steve’s assistants and they took charge for the end of the 2001\/02 season and the beginning of 2002\/03.<\/p>

Steve Lilley<\/b> 2002\u20132003: Steve stepped into the manager’s shoes early during the 2002\/03 season until the end of the season.<\/p>

Robin Sainty<\/b> 2003\u20132006<\/p>

Jerry Rose, Ian Leaver, and Neil Brown<\/b> 2006\u20132007: These three ex-players took charge after being challenged to do so at a “drunken barbecue.”<\/p>

Ian Leaver<\/b> 2007\u20132008: Ian took sole charge for this season.<\/p>

Wayne Anderson<\/b> 2008\u20132010<\/p>

Garth Good<\/b> 2010\u20132012<\/p>

Pete Brassent<\/b> 2012<\/p>

Mark Reeve<\/b> 2012\u20132014<\/p>

Bob Warby<\/b> 2014\u20132016<\/p>

Pawel Guziejko<\/b> 2016\u20132017<\/p>

Paul Neary<\/b> 2017\u20132018<\/p>

Craig Dickson and Dale Stokes<\/b> 2018\u20132024: Craig and Dale oversaw winning the Thurlow Nunn First Division North play-offs in 2022\/23 to play Step 5 football in the Thurlow Nunn Premier League for the first time. The team won the Norfolk Senior Cup in 2023\/24. Craig then stood down.<\/p>

Dale Stokes<\/b> 2024\u2013Current Date: The 2024\/25 season saw Dale and his team win promotion to Step 4 football, again for the first time, by winning the league play-offs.<\/p>

Now on to Step 4 and the Isthmian League North. Who knows what lies ahead? Only time will tell.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Downham town football club A BRIEF HISTORY Downham Town Football Club, nicknamed “The Saints,” is one of the oldest football clubs in Norfolk, having been formed in 1881. Until 1952, the team was picked by a committee. Originally, the club played junior football in the King’s Lynn area before taking up senior status by being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3046","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_hostinger_reach_plugin_has_subscription_block":false,"_hostinger_reach_plugin_is_elementor":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3046"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3280,"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3046\/revisions\/3280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhamtownfc1.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}