Thames A.F.C.

Thames Association

Full name	Thames Association Football Club
Founded	1928
Dissolved	1932
Ground	West Ham Stadium, Custom House, London
Ground Capacity	120,000
Home colours Away colours

Thames Association Football Club were an English football club from Custom House, east London (at the time part of Essex), who briefly played in the Football League between 1930 and 1932.

Name

Unlike other AFCs such as Sunderland A.F.C., the word Association was initially presented as part of the club name – i.e. Thames Association or Thames Association FC. The "Association" was abbreviated upon joining the Football League, giving the team the more regular name of Thames AFC.^[1]

History

They were founded in 1928, in a similar manner to New Brighton Tower and Chelsea, to play on a ground which had no football club in residence. In Thames' case, they were formed by a group of businessmen who had built the West Ham Stadium, with a capacity of 120,000, in the Custom House area of Essex (now Greater London); the stadium was primarily used for greyhound and speedway racing which took place during the week, leaving Saturdays free. The directors of the stadium decided to form a professional football club to play on Saturdays, to bring in additional revenue to the stadium.

The club began playing in the Southern League Eastern Division, and finished 14th in their first season and third in the season after that (1929–30).^[2] This was enough for them to gain election to the Football League Third Division South in the summer of 1930, in place of Merthyr Town. Thames continued to field a reserve side in the Southern League for a single further season, before withdrawing entirely in 1931.^[3]

Thames' spell in the Football League was a short and unhappy one; such was the struggle to attract spectators, despite the stadium's capacity of 120,000 (making it the largest ground in England to regularly host League football), the club holds the record for the lowest known attendance for a Saturday Football League match; just 469 fans paid to watch Thames play Luton Town on 6 December 1930.^[4]

Unable to compete with established teams nearby, such as Charlton Athletic, Clapton Orient, Millwall and West Ham United, Thames struggled. They finished 20th out of 22 clubs in 1930–31, and 22nd (i.e., bottom) the following season (1931–32). This prompted the club directors' decision to not to seek re-election to the League for the following season and wind up the club, despite an approach from Clapton Orient to merge the two clubs.^[5] They were replaced by Aldershot.

Thames AFC should not be confused with Thames Ironworks FC, a club that had predated them by over 30 years, and would go on to be renamed West Ham United.

Players

Notable players for Thames included former England international Jimmy Dimmock, former Welsh internationals Len Davies and Moses Russell and ex-Arsenal striker Henry White. Eddie Perry went on to be a Welsh international.^[6]

Colours

Thames' home colours were red and blue quartered shirts with white shorts and black socks with red and blue trim.^[7]

Records and statistics

Thames' record for their two seasons in the Football League was played 84, won 20, drew 17, lost 47, scored 107 and conceded 202. The club's record league win was 6–3, against Mansfield Town on 2 April 1932, while their record league loss was 8–0, against Luton Town on 11 April 1931 and Fulham on 28 March 1932.^[8][9] The furthest they ever reached in the FA Cup was the First Round proper, in 1929–30, 1930–31 and 1931–32.^[1]

In total, 103,698 fans watched all of Thames' games, at an average of 2,469 per game, which ranks them as 122 out of all the 130 Football League teams in terms of attendance.^[10] The club's record highest attendance was approximately 8,000, against Exeter City in August 1931.^[11]

References

External links

• Aerial photograph of West Ham Stadium
• Thames Association F.C. on Football Club History Database
• Thames A.F.C. on Football Club History Database