Basildon United Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. They are currently members of the and play at Gardiners Close.

History

Basildon United's roots go back to 1955, when a club named Armada Sports was formed, joining Division One of the Southend & District League. In 1959 Armada Sports merged with London League club Pitsea United, with Pitsea United effectively absorbing Armada Sports. However, Armada Sports later split from Pitsea United and were renamed Basildon United in 1967. The club joined the Thurrock Thames-side Combination League for the 1967–68 season, before switching to the Reserves Division Two of the

Greater London League The Greater London League was a football league for clubs in and around London. It was formed in 1964 by a merger of the London League and the Aetolian League, after the two leagues had run a joint league cup the previous season due to both stru ...

in 1968. After finishing as runners-up in the division in 1969–70, they were promoted to Reserves Division One. In 1971 the club were founder members of the Essex Senior League (ESL). They finished as runners-up in 1972–73, before winning the league in 1976–77. The club went on to win the league for the next three seasons, as well winning the League Cup in 1977–78, before switching to the

Athenian League The Athenian League was an English amateur football league for clubs in and around London. The league was originally to be called the Corinthian League,Athenian Football League minutes 1912-1921 (National Football Museum, Preston). but this nam ...

in 1980. After finishing second in their first season in the Athenian League, Basildon joined Division Two of the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

for the 1981–82 season. In 1983–84 they won Division Two and were promoted to Division One. The club remained in Division One until being relegated at the end of the 1988–89 season, when they finished second bottom of the Division, and were demoted to Division Two North. In 1991 Basildon left the Isthmian League and dropped back into the Essex Senior League. They won the league and League Cup double in 1993–94, but did not take promotion to the Isthmian League. The club won the League Cup for a third time in 1997–98 and for a fourth time in 2016–17. After finishing as runners-up in the league in 2017–18, they were promoted to the Isthmian League's North Division.

Ground

The club played at the Gloucester Park Bowl from 1967, with the record attendance of 5,000 being set at the stadium for Armada Sports' friendly against a West Ham United XI in 1963.Jon Weaver (2005) ''The Football Grounds of Rural Essex'', p53 The ground had uncovered seating along one side of the pitch, with a roof later built to create a 200-seat stand. In 1970 they moved to Gardiners Close and the new ground was opened with another friendly match against West Ham on 11 August in front of a crowd of 3,600,Weaver, p4 although they continued to play floodlit matches at the Gloucester Park Bowl until floodlights were installed at Gardiners Close. A covered standing area was built on one side of the pitch, but was removed by the end of the 1970s; a new, equally short-lived stand was built in its place in the 1980s with three steps of terracing. Two covered areas were also built on the other side of the pitch, one of which had seats installed after they were removed from

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...

's Granleigh Road ground. Another smaller stand was later built between the two covered areas containing the directors box. Floodlights were installed in 1979 at a cost of £10,000 and inaugurated with a friendly match against

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

on 30 October, attracting a crowd of over 2,000. Plans were announced in 1995 to move to a new stadium on Courtauld Road next to the

A127 The A127, also known as the Southend Arterial Road, is a major road in Essex, England. It was constructed as a new arterial road project in the 1920s, linking Romford with Southend-on-Sea, replacing the older A13. Formerly classified as a tr ...

; however, the plans were dropped in 1997 due to complaints about the proposed development.Weaver, p94 Gardiners Close currently has a capacity of 2,000, of which 400 is seated and 1,000 covered.

Honours

*Isthmian League **Division Two champions 1983–84 *Essex Senior League **Champions 1976–77, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1993–94 **League Cup winners 1977–78, 1993–94, 1997–98, 2016–17 *Essex Senior Trophy **Winners 1978–79 *Essex Elizabethan Trophy **Winners 1978

Records

*Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 1983–84, 1998–99 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: Second qualifying round, 1985–86 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

performance: Quarter-finals, 1980–81 *Record attendance: 5,000 vs

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

, friendly match, 1963

References

External links