Shaftesbury Football Club are 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

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The club is affiliated to the

Dorset County Football Association The Dorset County Football Association is the County Football Association for Dorset. The Dorset County FA traces its root back to the South Hants and Dorset Football Association which was founded in 1884. Three years later in 1887, due to the gro ...

and is a FA chartered Standard club. They are currently members of the .

History

The club was established in 1888 and by the 1905–06 season were winners of the Dorset Junior League. The club became members of the Dorset Senior League for the start of the 1931–32 campaign and a season later were winners of the competition. After the Second World War the club played in the

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 ...

for the first time, reaching the Extra Preliminary Qualifying round before being knocked out by Alton Town. The club became one of the founder members of the Dorset Football Combination League at the start of the 1957–58 season. Four seasons later the club reached the final of the

Dorset Senior Cup The Dorset Senior Cup is a knockout cup competition involving association football teams from the county of Dorset, England, affiliated with the Dorset County Football Association. The current holders of the Dorset Senior Cup are Poole Town who ...

, for the first time but lost out to

Dorchester Town Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the . The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...

. The club continued in the Combination until the end of the 1961–62 competition, when they dropped into the Dorset leagues again. The 1976–77 season saw the club return to the Dorset Combination league. The club went on to win the combination league in the 1988–89 competition. They repeated another title success again in the 1996–97 campaign. When the

Wessex Football League The Wessex Football League is an English association football league formed in 1986, with its premier division currently at the fifth step of the National League System, or the ninth tier of the overall English football league system. The par ...

expanded for the start of the 2004–05 campaign, the club moved to the newly created Division Two. The next season saw the club enter the

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 ...

for the first time, where they were knocked out in the First Qualification round by Westbury United. The club stayed in the Wessex League a further season, when they finished bottom of the league and were relegated to the

Dorset Premier Football League The Dorset Premier Football League is a football league based in Dorset, England, which sits at Step 7 of the National League System, or level 11 of the overall English football league system. History The league was formed in 1957 under the n ...

. In 2013–14, Shaftesbury Town continued their

Dorset Premier League The Dorset Premier Football League is a football league based in Dorset, England, which sits at Step 7 of the National League System, or level 11 of the overall English football league system. History The league was formed in 1957 under the na ...

challenge, starting on 10 August against Wareham Rangers. In 2022, Shaftesbury played in the Wessex League Charity Shield game but lost to League Winners Hamworthy United

Ground

Shaftesbury play their home games at Cockrams, Coppice Street, Shaftesbury, SP7 8PF. But, when the council refused to give planning permission, the club called upon the local sponsor and supermarket, Tesco. Tesco built the club a new playground and a huge sheltered stand which is estimated to have around 2–300 persons capacity. The club have played at Cockrams since moving there in 1974. The ground belongs to the local Shaftesbury council who lease the ground to the club.

Honours

League honours

* Dorset Football Combination League : ** Winners (2): 1988–89, 1996–97 *Dorset Senior League : ** Winners (1): 1932–33 *Dorset Junior League : ** Winners (2): 1905–06, 1962–63

Cup honours

: ** Runners-Up (1): 1960–61 * Dorset Football Combination League Challenge Cup : ** Winners (2): 1988–89, 1994–95 ** Runners-Up (1): 1987–88 *Dorset Junior League Cup : ** Winners (3): 1899–1900, 1905–06, 1975–76 ** Runners-Up (1): 1896–97 *Dorset Junior Cup : ** Winners (1): 1907–08

Records

*Highest League Position: 9th in Wessex League Division one 2006–07 *

best performance: Second qualifying round 2021–22 *

best performance: First round 2008–09, 2018–19

Former players

# Players that have played/managed in the football league or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league). # Players with full international caps. * Steven Thompson

Former coaches

# Managers/Coaches that have played/managed in the football league or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league). # Managers/Coaches with full international caps. * Stuart Housley * Ken Wookey

References

External links

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