| Full name | Mole Valley Sutton Common Road Football Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Commoners | |
| Founded | 1978 | |
| Ground | Leg O'Mutton Field, Cobham (Capacity: 2500) |
|
| Chairman | Alan Salmon | |
| Manager | Darren Salmon | |
| League | Combined Counties League Premier Division |
|
| 2010-11 | Combined Counties League Premier Division, 8th |
|
|
||
Mole Valley Sutton Common Road F.C. are a football club currently based in Cobham, Surrey, England. The club competes in the Combined Counties League Premier Division.
Chairman and Life President Alan Salmon founded Sutton Common Rovers in 1978, when the club began life as I.N.R.A.D. based in Carshalton. The club entered a new era when Alan moved to Sutton and arranged sponsorship with his new neighbour. Centre 21 FC was born. This era saw the club running one Saturday side, three Sunday sides and three Youth sides. Centre 21's sponsorship continued until the club's youth players were no longer under 21 years old.
The club again sought a new identity; Sutton Common Road was formed and subsequently abbreviated to SCR F.C. Since then the club has had five major sponsors whose names have been incorporated into the club's affiliated name: SCR Plough (twice), SCR Grapes, SCR Litten Tree (7 years) and finally SCR Kingfisher, Ewell with whom they started their venture in Saturday football in 2004-05 until the then landlord Andy Coxs' departure.
It was at this point that the club took the decision to revert back to using the SCR name alone, feeling that as they strove for continued promotion they needed to disassociate themselves with the ‘pub team’ image. That said the club did take sponsorship from the Fox & Hounds public house in Carshalton for the Saturday first team in 2006-07 but the decision was made that the pub name would not be incorporated into the affiliated name.
The club entered yet another new era in season 2007-08 with the introduction of a third Saturday side co-run by Alex Avis and Tony Williams. The first team moved to the Middlesex County Football League and changed their name to Sutton Common Rovers in the pursuit of Combined Counties football having made an unsuccessful application from the Surrey South Eastern Combination at the end of season 2006-07.
Harry Barrett continued to run the first Surrey South Eastern Combination side until February 2008 when several personal factors meant unfortunately he had to step down. This paved the way for John Waddingham and Ben Jeffcoate to take the reins as caretaker managers. During this shake-up several additional changes took place in the 2007-08 season; Alex moved in a new temporary role as 1st team assistant and within the team Sunday management the arrival of the youngest of the Salmons, Justin taking over jointly the 1st team with Dave Newbury. Stephen Snowdon and Alan Reed continued for the 4th season at the helm of the Sunday 2nd team. A third-place finish in the Middlesex County League Premier Division in 2008 meant that the club's promotion to the Combined Counties League was not assured but months of hard work and determination from the management team eventually secured a place within the league constitution. The club also took the decision to take their reserve team into the Combined Counties League. Taking a place within the league's Reserve Division under the joint guidance of Justin Salmon and Alex Avis, Alex has since elected to concentrate on playing and now been replaced by Simon Pike. Darren Salmon remains at the helm of the 1st with new additions Peter Hayne as assistant & Ken Bremner as club playing coach and the returning Gary Brigden as goalkeeping coach.
2008 also saw the latest name change of the club, this time with the inclusion of 'Mole Valley' to form the new name Mole Valley SCR F.C. reflecting the area in which they played. In 2009 the club was forced to move from its shared ground in Mole Valley and currently groundshares with Cobham whilst looking into the possibility of a permanent move to Weston Green, Thames Ditton.
The 2009/10 season saw the club win the Combined Counties League Division 1 and earn promotion to the Premier Division for the first time in the clubs history. The season also saw the side make its FA Vase debut, when winning 2-1 at Guildford City (although the side lost 1-0 at home to Beckenham Town the next round). The club also featured in its first ever county cup final, narrowly losing the Surrey Premier Cup Final to Sutton Utd Reserves 5-3 on penalties, after the match had finished 1-1 after extra time.
2010/11 sees the side compete in the Combined Counties Premier Division, and make their debuts in both the FA Cup (a disappointing 5-0 loss to Chertsey Town) and in the Surrey Senior Cup (with a home tie against Egham Town scheduled for October).
|
|||||||||||