Braintree Town F.C.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Braintree Town
Full name Braintree Town Football Club
Nickname(s) The Iron
Founded 1898
Ground Cressing Road
Braintree
Capacity 3,723 (550 seats)
Chairman Lee Harding
Manager George Borg
League Conference South
2005-06 Isthmian League
Premier Division, 1st
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Away colours

Braintree Town F.C. is a football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. The club is currently in the Conference South. Club history was made in 2005 upon reaching the First Round proper of the FA Cup for the first time, and later that same season the club won the Isthmian League Premier Division, gaining promotion to the Conference South for the 2006-07 season.

They are managed by George Borg, who used to manage Enfield, Chelmsford City and Aldershot.

Contents

[edit] History

The club was formed in 1898 and accepted into the North Essex League as Manor Works FC, the works team of the Crittall Window Company - suppliers to the Titanic and once the leading window makers in England. The club's nickname "The Iron" also comes from this source, reflecting the company's iron window frames. The club's crest reflects its origins and shows the factory of the old Crittall Garage which overlooked the club's Cressing Road ground before being demolished in 2005. In 1921 the club changed its name to Crittall Athletic FC and soon afterwards moved to a new stadium (which has been their home since). Around 1968 the club changed name once again, this time to Braintree & Crittall Athletic FC, but when links with Crittalls ended in 1981 they became Braintree Town FC.

In 1935 the club became founder members of the Eastern Counties League, where they were champions in the 1936-37 season. After this they joined the Essex County League, where they were runners-up in their first season, but then rejoined the Eastern Counties League. After World War II the club appears to have been inactive until 1952 when they rejoined the Eastern Counties League. In 1955 they left this league and it is unclear where they played for the next decade.

In 1964 Crittall joined the Greater London League, before moving to the Metropolitan League in 1966. In 1970 they rejoined the Eastern Counties League, where they were to play for the next twenty years.. Their most successful decade was the 1980s, when they were league champions twice (1983-84 and 1984-85) and runners-up on four other occasions. After the last of these second-place finished in 1990-91 they stepped up to the Southern League Southern Division. In 1996 they switched to the Isthmian League Division Three, but three promotions in five years brought them to the Premier Division by 2002. in 2005-06 they were Isthmian League champions and gained promotion to the Conference South.

[edit] Ground

They play their home games at their Cressing Road Stadium, which has a capacity of 3,723. Of those approximately 1,400 are under cover with a further 550 seated under cover in an extended Main Stand. The club has recently completed many improvements to their stadium, including Football League floodlighting, new dressing rooms and turnstiles. All these improvements were needed to meet Conference National standards. This was inspected and approved by the Conference on 27 March 2007.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links


Conference South 2006/07

Basingstoke Town | Bedford Town | Bishop's Stortford | Bognor Regis Town | Braintree Town | Cambridge City | Dorchester Town | Eastbourne Borough | Eastleigh | Farnborough Town | Fisher Athletic | Havant & Waterlooville | Hayes | Histon | Lewes | Newport County | Salisbury City | Sutton United | Thurrock | Welling United | Weston-super-Mare | Yeading   edit

Football in England Flag of England
v  d  e
League competitions The FA Cup competitions
Premier League England FA Cup
The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) (U-21) (B) Football League Cup
Football Conference (Nat, N, S) List of clubs Community Shield
Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) List of venues Football League Trophy
Southern League (Prem, Mid, S&W) (by capacity) FA Trophy
Isthmian League (Prem, 1N, 1S) List of leagues FA Vase
English football league system Records FA NLS Cup