Alma Swanley F.C was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Swanley Swanley is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2021 ce ...

. They were originally known as Alma after the pub in Birchwood (lastly known as The Birchwood before being demolished in 2011) near the Bull Hotel. They originally played in the Dartford and District league, with ex Swanley Comprehensive School boys. They had to include "Swanley" within their name for senior status. They were founding members of the

London Spartan League The Spartan League was a Association football, football league in England covering London and adjacent counties. Established in 1907, it merged with the South Midlands League in 1997 to form the Spartan South Midlands Football League, Spartan So ...

in 1975 and joined the Kent League in 1982. They won the title in 1986 but resigned from the league in 1994 and folded. The club competed in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

six times, with the best performance coming in their final season in the competition, 1992–93, when they lost in the second qualifying round to

Yeading Yeading ( ) is a settlement in west London, forming part of the London Borough of Hillingdon, having been developed after the Second World War. Etymology Yeading is very early Saxon and was originally ''Geddingas'' or ''Geddinges'', meaning " ...

. In the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

, their longest run was to the Quarter Finals in 1980–81. They played Windsor & Eton and after a 2–2 draw AET at home on Swanley Rec, with goals from Colin Ball and player manager Johnny Kane in front of a record 1,100 crowd they were defeated 4–1 in the replay. Alma ended their final season 1993–94 as winners of the Kent Senior Trophy. They defeated Folkestone Invicta 3–1 in the final. One of their goalscorers was Peter Smith who afterwards played first team professional football for

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

. He had played in a memorial match for the club's manager who had died at the end of the season played at Greenwich Borough and a scout spotted him. The club colours were red and black.

League history

''League history is not complete''

References

Sources

*{{Fchd, name=Alma Swanley, id=ALMA-SWA Defunct football clubs in England Association football clubs disestablished in 1994 Metropolitan–London League 1960s establishments in England 1994 disestablishments in England Southern Counties East Football League Swanley Defunct football clubs in Kent