AFC STONEHAM CLUB HISTORY
A newly formed club in 1919 was Royal Engineers (Ordnance Survey Office) FC who are the present-day AFC STONEHAM and is attributed to soldiers returning from the hostilities. They briefly threw their lot in with the Post Office side, amongst others, to become Southampton Civil Service FC in the 1920s but soon reformed as an independent club again.
A more simplified name was chosen in 1929, becoming Ordnance Survey FC. The club remained in the Southampton League but apparently had a spell playing Sunday football in the early sixties before reverting back to the Southampton Saturday League once again. Having lost the Civil Service ground in 1999, the club has been a bit nomadic since but are now settled in their Stoneham Lane facility. The name was changed to Stoneham in 2006 with ‘AFC’ added a year later. The club has had two spells in the Wessex League, first in 2004 to 2007, returning in 2015 and are current members.
AFC Stoneham was formed in 1919 and will have 61 teams for season 2020/21 ranging from our minnows’ team to our first team who will compete in the Wessex Premier League. We are hoping to complete our first ever full season with last season curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic when we sat second in the table. We also run our own Player Development Centre, FA Wildcats Centre for girls and a Saturday Morning Fun Club for children aged 4-10.
We offer a structured player pathway into our first team whilst also offering football to all ages and abilities with a big focus and commitment to our ever-growing youth structure. We believe that the game is a vehicle to teach our young players both life lessons and disciplines through team sport which hopefully they will utilise throughout their lives as they progress and develop.
The club has a rich history including recently winning and retaining the Southampton Senior Cup in 2012 and 2013 whilst winning the Hampshire League Cup final in 2015 prior to being promoted to the Wessex League. The club finished eighth during our first two seasons in the Wessex League and fifth during the 2018/19 season.
Our 100th year last season proved to be historic as we won the Division One title. We also had a great FA Cup run, our first season in the competition, which helped raise the profile of the club whilst also reaching the Final of the Southampton Senior Cup at St Mary's Stadium and winning Division one title. 2019/20 was our first season in the Premier Division during our 100 year history as the whole club moved to our new £10m home in December.
