Leatherhead Football Club is a

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

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

, Surrey, England. The club is nicknamed ''The Tanners'' and plays home at Fetcham Grove. They play in the . The club is affiliated to the

Surrey County Football Association The Surrey County Football Association was founded in 1877 and affiliated to The Football Association in 1882, at the same time as a County Senior Cup competition, the Surrey Senior Cup, was established. The organisation administers all levels ...

and is a FA Charter Standard club.

History

The club was founded in 1907 as Leatherhead Rose, and originally played friendlies. In 1909 they joined the Dorking and District League, and won the league at the first attempt. After the First World War the team rejoined that league and again won the league championship. The following season they joined the Kingston and District League, and went on to win three league titles before the Second World War. Leatherhead also had another local club, Leatherhead United, formed in 1924, who won Division One of the Sutton and District League in the 1925–26 season. United also finished third in the Premier League in the 1928–29 season, behind Leatherhead Rose who were runners-up. In the early 1930s Fetcham Grove-based United joined the Surrey Junior League and became Champions at the end of the 1933–34 season. This enabled United to join the Surrey Intermediate League, but they were relegated after a few seasons at the end of the 1936–37 campaign. After the Second World War officials of the two clubs met; and on 27 May 1946 Leatherhead Football Club was officially formed at a public meeting. The two clubs pooled their financial resources and chose United's Fetcham Grove ground for their home pitch. The club then joined the

Surrey Senior League The Surrey Senior League was an English regional football league for teams based in Surrey although teams from outside the county were often admitted as well. The league existed from 1922 until 1978, when it was rebranded as the Home Counties Leag ...

for the start of the 1946–47 season. They won that league four times in a row, and left the league to join the Metropolitan & District League for the 1950–51 season. The next season they became founding members of the

Delphian League The Delphian League was an English amateur football league covering Greater London and the surrounding area. The league was formed in 1951 with 14 clubs and was effectively a level below the Corinthian League. The team played in the Delphian League for seven seasons before joining the Corinthian League. In the 1962–63 season they became the last Corinthian League champions, as the league was disbanded. Along with most of the other sides, they joined the enlarged

Athenian League The Athenian League was an England, English amateur association football, 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 ...

in the new Division One. At the end of their first season in Division One they were promoted to the Premier Division as Champions.

1970s

The club reached the semi-finals of the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footb ...

in 1969, losing to eventual winners Skelmersdale United, and again in 1971, falling to

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

. The hero of this era was "Nobby" Skinner, noted for his ability to "poach" a goal out of nothing. After these cup runs further progress was made in the league when the club joined the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

for the start of the 1972–73 season. In the 1974–75 season, ''The Tanners'' made national headlines with an

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 ...

run that saw them beat Isthmian League rivals Bishops Stortford (

First round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

) and Football League Third Division sides

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

(

Second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

) and

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 ...

, managed by

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politic ...

(

Third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

). In the

Fourth round Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

they were drawn at home to First Division

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

. It remains the furthest the club has ever reached in the competition. With the game switched to Leicester's

Filbert Street Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively b ...

at the request of Leatherhead's management, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

Match of the Day ''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a Association football, football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights during the Premier League season. ''Match of the Day'' is one of the BBC's longest-runn ...

'' cameras and over 32,000 people saw a dramatic match in which Leatherhead went 2–0 up and then saw a goalbound Chris Kelly shot that would have made it 3–0 cleared off the line. Leicester's fitness and class eventually told as they fought back to win 3–2 in the second half. Kelly was the star player of the side, earning the nickname "The Leatherhead Lip" for his readiness to talk up the team. At the height of the team's success, Kelly appeared on national television, including ''Match of the Day'', '' Nationwide'' and ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First broadcast on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorrow's World' ...

''. Later in the year, his name featured in the BBC sitcom ''

Porridge Porridge is a food made by heating, soaking or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, fruit, or syrup to make a sweet cereal ...

'', on the back page of a copy of ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' being read by Fletcher. The following year another budding FA Cup run saw Leatherhead beat

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

, managed by

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Ron", he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits in the 1990s and early 2000s. Nicknamed "The Tank" during his ...

In 1978, the side reached the final of the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

, played at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

, only to lose 3–1 to

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

1980s and beyond

The Tanners also reached the FA Cup first round in 1980 but lost 5–1 to

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. Three seasons later though the club struggled in the league and was relegated to Division One in the 1982–83 season, and further relegation followed at the end of the 1989–90 season when they were relegated to division two south. Seven seasons later the club finished as Runners-up in Division Two and gained promotion to Division One at the end of the 1996–97 season. However the club could only stay four seasons in Division One before being relegated to Division Two at the end of the 2000–01 season. A season later, upon the league reorganisation, they were placed in Division One South. In October 2006, they were drawn against

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

in the FA Cup first round, the first time in 26 years they had reached this level, going out 2–1. In 2011, Leatherhead gained promotion, beating Dulwich Hamlet in a dramatic play-off final. The Tanners were 3–1 down going into injury time when Kevin Terry managed to pull two goals back, taking the game to extra time. Terry scored again in extra time to claim his hat-trick and take the Tanners into the

Premier Division. However they only managed one season in the top flight of the Isthmian League before being relegated back to Division One South. In the 2013–14 season, Leatherhead were promoted after winning the play-off final against Folkestone Invicta. Jimmy Bullard managed Leatherhead in the 2016–17 season. In the 2017–18 season Leatherhead reached the second round of the FA Cup, under Sammy Moore, but lost 3–1 away to

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

. Leatherhead also reached the final of the Surrey Senior Cup and finished 6th in the Isthmian League Premier Division, missing the play-offs on goal difference.

Nikki Bull Nikki Bull (born 2 October 1981) is an English professional Association football, footballer who was most recently the manager of Guildford City F.C., Guildford City. During his playing career, he was a goalkeeper (association football), goalke ...

took over as manager at the start of the 2018–19 season. The 2019-20 and 2020–21 seasons were unfinished due to COVID-19. In August 2021, Martin McCarthy took over as manager from Bull, who stayed with the club to focus on player recruitment. The U23 side moved to the Suburban League and Leatherhead Women FC started playing on Sundays at Fetcham Grove in the South East Counties Women's League.

Club operations

Financial problems emerged at Fetcham Grove just before Christmas 1999. The club survived that immediate crisis but it seemed that they were doomed in the summer of 2000 when a last-ditch appeal to the local business community for sponsorship failed. It was then that the supporters of the Tanners stepped in to save their club. A group of fans secured a new long-term lease on Fetcham Grove, helping to secure the Tanners' future, under the motto "a club run by its supporters for the benefit of the community". Tim Edwards (1954–2009) was a leading figure in that group and went on to become club chairman, having previously served as the club's youngest ever committee member, at age 25, and then as press secretary, programme editor and photographer.

Stadium

Leatherhead play their games at Fetcham Grove, Guildford Road, Leatherhead KT22 9AS. Parking is available at the adjacent Leatherhead Leisure Centre. Home fans are known to prefer the 'Shed End'. The ground was fitted with floodlights in the 1960s, and inaugurated their floodlights with a match against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

. In the summer of 2021, new floodlights were installed at Fetcham Grove.

Club officials

{, class="wikitable" , - !Position !Club Official , - , Chairman, , David Pope , - , - , Club Secretary, , Paul Bradbury , -

Management team

{, class="wikitable" , - !Position !Staff , - , Director of Football , , Mick Sullivan , - , Manager, , Ian Selley , - , Player/Assistant Manager, , , - , First Team Physio, , , - , Academy Manager, , , -

Players

First team squad

Honours

League honours

Division Two: ** Winners (1): 1996–97 *

Division One: ** Winners (1): 1963–64 * Corinthian League: ** Winners (1): 1962–63 *

: ** Winners (4): 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49, 1949–50 *Surrey Junior League: ** Winners (1): 1933–34 *Kingston and District League: ** Winners (1): 1938–39 *Sutton and District League Premier Division: ** Runners-up (1): 1928–29 *Sutton and District League Division One: ** Winners (1): 1925–26 *Dorking and District League: ** Winners (2): 1909–10, 1919–20

Cup honours

** Runners-up (1): 1977–78 *

Cup ** Winners (1): 2009/10 *

Charity Shield ** Winners (2): 2010–11, 2011–12 *

Surrey Senior Cup The Surrey Senior Cup is the senior Saturday cup competition of the Surrey FA. It is currently competed for by teams playing in the top nine levels of the English football league system who are affiliated to the Surrey FA. The competition was i ...

** Winners (1): 1968–69 ** Runners-up (6): 1964–65, 1966–67, 1974–75, 1978–79, 2010–11, 2017–18 *

London Senior Cup The London Senior Cup is the County Senior Cup of the London FA. The London Senior Cup was first won by Upton Park in 1882. Although the leading professional sides in London no longer compete, the Cup has been won in the past by the likes of ...

** Runners-up (2): 1974–75, 1977–78 *Surrey Senior Shield ** Winners (1): 1968–69 *Surrey Intermediate Cup ** Winners (1): 1968–69

Records

*Highest league position:3rd in Isthmian League, 1972–73 *Best

performance: Fourth round, 1974–75 *Best

performance: Semi-final, 1970–71, 1973–74 *Best

performance: Final, 1977–78 *Best

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 ...

performance: Second round 1994–95 *Record attendance: 5,500 vs

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, 1976Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2020) ''Non-League Club Directory 2021'', p543 *Biggest victory: 13–1 vs Leyland Motors,

, 1946–47 *Heaviest defeat: 1–11 vs

Barking Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking, 1965–1980 ** Municipal Borough of Barking, 1931–1965 ** Barking (UK Parliament constituency) ** Barking (electoral division), Greater ...

, 1982–83 *Most appearances: P Caswell, 200

Former players

Former coaches

# Managers/Coaches that have played/managed in the football league or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league). * Jimmy Bullard * Sammy Moore # Managers/Coaches with full international caps. * Ian Hazel * Mike Bailey * Jimmy Bullard

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Association football clubs established in 1907 Football clubs in Surrey Isthmian League clubs Athenian League Corinthian League (football) Delphian League Metropolitan League Surrey Senior League Kingston and District Football League 1907 establishments in England Football clubs in England