Bath City F.C.


Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. Formed in 1889 as Bath AFC, the club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently compete in the National League South, English football's sixth tier.
They play their home matches at Twerton Park, wear black and white striped shirts, black shorts, and white socks and are traditionally called "The Romans" or ‘The Stripes". Their current manager is former player Jerry Gill.
Bath City's history is entirely in non-league football, missing out on election to the Football League by a few votes in 1978 and again in 1985.. The club have a good history with the FA Cup, reaching the Third Round no less than six times, and have beaten league sides including Crystal Palace, Cardiff City and Millwall.

History

In 1889 Bath City were formed as Bath AFC and began to play at the Belvoir ground. In 1908 they commenced playing competitive league format football, joining the Western League Division Two. For the 1921–22 season they moved up to Southern League, English section. Here they remained until the Second World War when they were by chance accepted to join the temporary Division Two Northern Division competing with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Everton, finishing the eventual champions, thereby becoming the only semi-professional side ever to win a Football League trophy. After the War they were forced to resume playing in the Southern League which they won in the 1959–60 season. A year later they were runners up in the same league.
Over the next thirteen years they were three times relegated into and again promoted from the Southern League Division one. In the 1977–78 season they won the Southern League title for a second time. For the next season they fell short of election to the Football League by a narrow margin so they became founder members of the Alliance Premier League, now the Conference National. They finished runners-up at this level in 1985 but champions Wealdstone did not meet Football League stadium capacity requirements, so Bath City were allowed to apply for election to the Football League Fourth Division. They narrowly missed out on election to the Football League.
In 1989 however they were relegated back to the Southern League but were promoted back next season. Here they remained until they were relegated once more to the Southern League in 1997.
They narrowly missed out on promotion to the Conference South in the season 2005–06 season finishing second in the Southern League and lost to Bedford Town. However the following season they won promotion as winners of the Southern League in their second season under manager John Relish.
They finished in 8th position in the Conference South in the 2007–08 season. In the same season they developed a local arrangement to establish a junior footballing set-up called Bath City Youth. This set-up is now being developed into a football academy and in October 2008 manager John Relish moved aside from managerial duties to concentrate on creating this. He was replaced by his former assistant Adie Britton.
On 9 May 2010 Bath City won the Conference South Play-off final against Woking 1–0 and returned to the Conference Premier for the first time since 1997.
On 25 November 2010 Bath City's away game in the Conference against Histon was televised on Premier Sports where Bath City won 2–1 making it Bath City's second live televised football match after the FA Cup Tie v Hereford United shown on BSkyB on 5 December 1993. Their 3rd live televised match was in 2011 when Bath city lost 3–1 a.e.t against Dagenham and Redbridge on ESPN. However, ESPN did not play the extra time, instead cut back after the end of the match.
In the 2011–12 season, Bath City had a terrible run of bad results, therefore being relegated from the Conference National, needing 17 points from the remaining five fixtures to stay up. They were the first football club in the top five divisions of England to be relegated. They are currently playing in the Conference South following this relegation.
The club's performances have been mixed since, with the club just three points from the play-offs in the 2013/14 season. They did have success in the 2014/15 season, reaching the semi-final of the FA Trophy, beating Dover Athletic, Altrincham FC and local rivals Bristol Rovers, en route to losing on penalties to eventual winners, North Ferriby United.

Community ownership

In June 2015 "Big Bath City Bid" was launched by filmmaker and Bath fan Ken Loach to turn the club into a community-owned, ‘one member one vote’ club, in an effort to develop the club and clear its debts. In September 2016 the appeal achieved its £300,000 target to turn the club into a community-owned asset.
The community ownership received backing from around the world, including ex-Manchester Utd footballer, Eric Cantona.
On 5 May 2017, the club completed its transition to community ownership, and the major shareholder is Bath City Supporters Society Ltd with 54.6%.

Ground

Bath City play their home games at Twerton Park, Twerton, Bath, Somerset, BA2 1DB. hosting the 2009 Conference South Play-off final
Twerton Park became Bath City's ground in 1932; it is located in Twerton, a suburb of Bath. It currently has a reduced ground capacity of 3,528, with a seating capacity of 1,006. A record attendance of 18,020 was recorded in 1960 versus Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup.
Between 1986 and 1996, Bath City shared Twerton Park with Bristol Rovers, who were a Football League club. It has also hosted Team Bath, who were a full-time professional team playing in the Conference South until their resignation at the end of the 2008–09 season.
On 21 August 2008 Bath City's chairman Geoff Todd stated that "the club held talks with Bath Rugby over a possible ground share at the Rec" meaning in the future, Bath City could move to the Recreation Ground. At the end of the 2011–12 season the club offered the naming rights to Twerton Park for just £50. The offer drew 167 entries from as far afield as the US, Australia, Norway and Singapore which raised £3,850 for the club. Businesses made up 58 of the entries with only a handful of the remaining personalised entries being deemed unsuitable. The winning entry drawn at random was The Mayday Trust, a charitable organisation that helps to rehome vulnerable people.
The club released plans to redevelop the ground and local area, containing a new grandstand, 3G pitch and housing in a bid to secure the immediate financial future of the club. In March 2020, the plans were rejected.

Rivals

Due to the lack of other large football clubs in Somerset, Bath have had few main local rivals. Though, historically, Bath's main rivals were Yeovil Town F.C., Weymouth,
Newport County A.F.C. and Trowbridge Town FC. The four clubs have been moving in opposite directions in league standings over recent years, being as many as five divisions apart from one another during the 2013–14 season. Newport, were promoted to the Conference Premier for the 2010–11 season, and now participate in the Football League Two. Three leagues above Bath. However, Yeovil's subsequent decline means that as of the 2019–20 season Bath currently sit just one tier below.
As of recent years, Bath have forged rivalries with Chippenham Town F.C. and Weston-super-Mare A.F.C., due to the proximity between the clubs, both based on location and league positions.
Both Bristol Rovers and Bristol City aren't considered rivals, having never competed against each other in the league, and have formed friendly relations with the Romans, often sending youth players on loan.
In addition to the two Bristol clubs, Bath have formed a friendly relationship with Italian side Calcio Lecco. The clubs played against each other in the 1977 Anglo-Italian Cup Final, with the Italian side triumphing. This did not sour relations, with fans of both sides celebrating the 40th anniversary of the game in 2017 with a supporters match held in Lecco's Stadio Rigamonti-Ceppi ground.

Club records

Current squad

Out on loan

Notable former players

For all Bath City players with a Wikipedia article, see Bath City F.C. players.
Bath City have a long list of notable former players, including one of the best English players. During World War II, Stan Mortensen relocated to the south and played for the Romans 45 times, scoring 27 in the process. Other notable players to turn out for the Stripes include Bobby Zamora, Tony Book, Paul Bodin, Alan Skirton and Charlie Fleming.

Club management

;Team management

Honours

Bath City's honours include the following: