Bridgnorth Town
Bridgnorth Town was formed in 1949. Prior to that the club was called St Leonard ’s Football Club – the name derived from one of the parish churches. During the 50s and 60s ‘Town’ as they became known, played their football in the Kidderminster League winning the championship on one occasion. In the 1960s Town were selected to the Midland Combination and remained at that level for 15 years. The championship was won on two occasions and they were runners up twice. Promotion was then gained to the Southern League (Midland Division) and Town remained there for 12 years before being relegated to the
 
Interlink Express Midland Football Alliance League.
 
Their time in the Southern League was usually dominated by relegation battles. 1994/95 saw the appointment of Kevin Bowen as manager and Town missed out on promotion to the premier division very narrowly. Unfortunately Stafford Rangers enticed Bowen away at the start of the next season. Town struggle, a succession of managers came and went within 5 months and Town were relegated. At the start of 1996/97 season there were many changes on and off the pitch. This saw the introduction of Ian Britton as manager only one player from the previous season remained (Carl Bradley).
 
The new regimes start was not all smooth and by October Town were rock bottom, Britton turned the corner and finished in 6th position, the side also reached the final of Interlink Invitation Cup but lost out to Oldbury United.
 
The 97/98 season was something of a disappointment as after a promising start Town lost their way and finished 8th. The club parted company with Ian Britton and appointed ex – Town player Les Bristow as manager and look toward the 99/00 with renewed optimism. By the end of March the side were in the top four and were in the semi finals of the Staffs Senior Cup and the Industrial Rewinds Cup.
 
However an appalling fixture pile up was to ruin any chances of success and Town finished mid table with no silverware. Nine games into the 99/00 season and two points adrift at the bottom end of the table, Bristow was sacked. Enter Kenny Drakeford and an immediate recovery, 8 wins and a draw from Kenny’s first 10 games at the helm, Town moved away from the trouble and the icing on the cake came when the Davies Invitation Cup was won. Bridgnorth Town ’s first senior trophy win since 1986.
 
The 2000/01 season saw Tow off to a flying start, by October they were sitting pretty in the top three and in all cups. Drakeford took over as Chairman from Simon Bromley. However Drakeford’s no. 2, Steve Daley, departed to manage Bilston Town and Drakeford two days later, followed the ex wolves star and with them the whole of the first team squad. Harold Broome took over as Chairman and enters Mark Pound and Paul Tester who had to attract a new squad within 3 days, which to their credit they managed to achieve. Tester sadly departed in the summer, due to work commitments and that left Pound in charge of team affairs. He re-introduced Mick Tranter and Paul Blakeley.
 
The 2002/03 season saw a run of disappointing results under Pound. However, transfer activity bought in some much needed reinforcements and Town won three matches on the bounce. This was not enough to secure Pounds future and he was sacked in November. He was replaced by Jimmy Mullen (ex Burnley, Blackpool and Telford ) and with a lot of hard work Mullen put points on the board to steer the club to a mid table finish.
 
In the summer the club went through many changes, Mullen moved onto Colwyn Bay , and Lee Edginton took over as Chairman and the committee saw a lot of new blood. Edginton imposed a season of consolidation and tighter financial control. Also enter ex -Walsall, Telford and Bridgnorth player Steve Frisby with the emphasis on local players from around Shropshire and under no pressure, 2003/04 season is looked upon with renewed optimism.
 
At county level Town have had many successes, winning the Challenge Trophy 5 times and the Junior Cup once, the best of all was in 1986 when Shropshire’s Senior Cup took pride of place in the clubhouse, Town dumped Shrewsbury out in the semi final 1- 0 before beating Oswestry in the final. The Welsh Amateur Cup was also won in 1971.
 
Players who have gone on to greater things include Paul Jones (Southampton and Wales ) and Simon Travis ( Stockport ). Another famous son Delwyn Humphries also activated fame when he scored for Kidderminster against Birmingham City in the 5th round of the FA Cup.
 
During the 2003/2004 season Bridgnorth Town saw a lot of internal changes with the departure of the Chairman, the Football Secretary, and at the end of the season we let Steve Frisby go and introduced another local Lad Kevin Hestletine as manager.
 
The start of 2004/05 under Kevin, saw Bridgnorth win just 2 league games out of 17 and the performance on the pitch was poor, Kev resigned after the 17 games in early November and the committee appointed Julian Marsh as manager who bought in Kenny Howells as joint manager in the hope to get us out of the bottom of the league. Town never saw the mid table position again that season and finished bottom to be relegated into the Midland Combination League.
 
With Kenny Howells still in charge for the 2005/06 campaign hopes are high for a top 6 finish cause we know this league is a difficult one to gain promotion from. Kenny has kept a few from last season but the majority of the squad are new. Good luck to Kenny and his management team I’m sure they will do well.