Cirencester Town

Cirencester Town Football Club – the Story in brief

Cirencester Town FC was formed in 1889 and played amateur football in the Cirencester & District League, Cheltenham League and eventually the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League.

In the late ‘60s Cirencester joined the Gloucester County League, moving from there up to the Hellenic League in 1969. During that time, they had their first national cup run, reaching the 2nd round proper of the FA Amateur Cup. They won their first major piece of silverware, taking the Hellenic First Division Championship in 1973-74 to reach the Premier Division. Following a subsequent relegation, the modern phase of development was slowly established, with their Smithfield ground being improved.

Season 1995-96 was the start of the new era. In partnership with Cirencester College, the club began the groundbreaking Football Academy programme. Developing rapidly, first under Dave Hockaday and when he moved as Youth Team Manager to Watford FC, followed by Steve Lowndes, the Academy have been National College Champions in ’97 and in ’98, five times winners of the English Schools FA U19 Colleges Cup since 1998, and British Colleges Trophy Champions 4 times since ’97.

Off field, a long planning process led to the development of the Community Club phase led by Chairman Steve Abbley and implemented over 3 years by Business Manager Anna Kocherhan. In summer 2002 Brian Hughes succeeded Ray Baverstock as manager. At the same time the club, having invested the proceeds of the sale of Smithsfield in the Corinium Stadium at Kingshill, moved into their new faciltity and renamed as “The Centurions”. This development was followed in November 2004 by the opening of The Arena, a state-of-the-art full size indoor training facility. We have now been awarded the FA’s “Charter Standard Community Club” status and this summer we received the 2006 Gloucestershire FA Award for “Charter Standard Community Club of the Year”, which was presented to Steve Abbley by Sir Geoff Hurst.

In May 2006, after four highly successful years and having raised expectations at the club, Brian Hughes resigned as First Team Manager to be replaced by Neil Hards. Neil had taken a year out of football after his achievements at Winchester City where they gained “back-to-back” promotions and won the FA Vase in 2004. Unfortunately, despite some good early performances, the team lacked the necessary consistency, and a disastrous run of results after Christmas meant they finished in the relegation places. However, the club was later reprieved from relegation after a number of changes were made to club allocations in the non-league structure due to club mergers and other decisions.

Manager Adi Viveash left the Centurions to take up his role as Chelsea and Brian Hughes was again called upon to take up the hot seat as First Team manager. The 2009 – 10 seasons proved to be a very successful one with the Development squad winning the league in their first season and the first team gaining promotion via the play offs after 2 very good away wins both with late goals.

Manager Brian Hughes managed the clubs first season back in the Premier Division in 2010-2011 and the club finished 13th. Unfortunately, 2011-12 saw the heartbreak of relegation and our first year back in the South & West division saw us finish 10th in the table.

2013-2014 saw the club have its most successful season ever gaining automatic promotion back to the Southern League Premier by clinching the title on the last day of the season to beat Merthyr Town to the championship. Brian Hughes worked with a small squad which managed to overturn a 9-point deficit and clinched the title last term by winning the last 7 games of the season whilst everyone else dropped points on the way.

2016-2017 saw changes at the helm after a poor start Brian Hughes was relieved of the manager’s job and Charlie Griffin was installed as his replacement. The 2017-2018 saw a brand-new state of the art 3G pitch installed at The Corinium Stadium. After a slow start The Centurions missed out on a playoff spot on goal difference and disappoint was to follow last season after finishing runners up, promotion was denied via the play offs losing to Cinderford Town FC in the semi-final by 1 goal.

December 2019 saw another change with former North Leigh manager John Brough take the helm replacing Charlie Griffin after a disappointing start to the season. The change nearly had the desired effect as the Centurions climbed the table with a play off place in sight before the season was sadly cut short due to the current situation, we find ourselves in relating to COVID 19.

2020-2024 was a new era for Ciren with the appointment of John Brough. John’s first season ended in heartbreak with a loss in the playoffs, season 2 was curtailed due to COVID when the Centurions were league leaders. The last 2 seasons were extremely difficult after we were placed in the Central division, missing out on the playoffs both seasons by 1 point.

2024-2025 voluntary relegation to the Hellenic league was taken due to the levels of travel required in the Southern League, we ended our 28-year stay. Following the departure of John Brough, we appointed assistant manager and ex player James Mortimer-Jones who finished a respectable 15th in the league after starting pre season with only 2 players from the previous season. Jonah rebuilt the side and reaped the rewards of his hard work by winning the Wiseman Lighting Cup final in his first full season in charge

2026-2027 A successful season saw the Centurions finish 4th in the league and a semi final loss in the play offs to Droitwich Spa ended the campaign.