Andover Town 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

Andover, Hampshire Andover ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the River Test, Test, and lies alongside the major A303 road, A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, ...

, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Portway Stadium.

History

The club was established by staff from Andover College and

Sparsholt College Sparsholt College, formerly also known as Hampshire College of Agriculture, is a Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) college located at Sparsholt near Winchester, with a secondary campus in Andover, both in Hampshire in the south ...

in 2013 after

Andover F.C. Andover Football Club was an association football club based in Andover, Hampshire, established in 1883. Since the 2007–08 in English football, 2007–08 season, Andover had been a member of the Southern League Division One South and West at St ...

had disbanded; the two colleges approached

Test Valley Borough Council Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

about taking over Andover's Portway Stadium to use for their football academy programmes, with the aim of also forming a senior club.Club Information
Andover Town F.C. The club were elected to Division One of the

Wessex League The Wessex Football League, known as the Velocity Wessex Football League for sponsorship reasons, is an English regional men's football league in southern England. Its members are primarily from Hampshire and Dorset, but clubs from adjoining co ...

. During their first season they were involved in a

Hampshire Senior Cup The Hampshire Senior Cup is a cup competition open to football teams affiliated with the Hampshire Football Association. The competition was founded in 1887 and has been contested every year since, except 1914 to 1919 when it was postponed due t ...

tie at

Brockenhurst Brockenhurst is the largest village by population within the New Forest in Hampshire, England. The nearest city is Southampton some to the north-east, while Bournemouth is also nearby, south-west. Surrounding towns and villages include Beaul ...

which finished 0–0 after extra time; in the subsequent

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, 29 consecutive penalties were scored, with Brockenhurst eventually winning 15–14. This was later confirmed by

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

as an English record (and possibly a world record) for the highest number of consecutive goals scored in a penalty shootout. At the end of the 2013–14 season Andover were Division One runners-up, earning promotion to the Premier Division. The following season saw them make their debut 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 ...

, and in 2015–16 they played 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 ...

for the first time. In 2017–18 the club were Premier Division runners-up, potentially earning promotion to Division One West of the Southern League. However, the club turned down promotion and were relegated to Division One of the Wessex League as punishment. In 2023–24 Andover finished bottom of Division One and were relegated to the Senior Division of the Hampshire Premier League.

Ground

The club took over Andover F.C.'s Portway Stadium following a vote at Test Valley Borough Council in July 2013. The stadium had been built in 1989 at a cost of £850,000. A large stand with bench seating was built on one side of the pitch and slightly raise above it, with the other three sides left open. After being refurbished, the ground was reopened on 28 December 2013 for a match against

Team Solent The term Team Solent may refer to: *Solent University F.C., a former association football club attached to Solent University, based in Southampton, Hampshire. *Southampton Athletic Club, the name of an athletics club that was merged into SAC in 20 ...

, with Andover winning 4–0 in front of a crowd of 161.Winning Start at Portway Stadium
Andover Town, 28 December 2013

Records

*Best

performance: First qualifying round, 2016–17 *Best

performance: Second round, 2016–17 *Record attendance: 546 vs

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

, Wessex League Premier Division, 18 August 2015 *Biggest win: 11–0 vs East Cowes Victoria Athletic, Wessex League Division One, 25 January 2014 *Heaviest defeat: 6–0 vs Salisbury, Wessex League Premier Division, 2 February 2016 *Most appearances: Alex Doctree, 130 *Most goals: Michael Dixon, 52

References

External links

Official website
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Football clubs in England Football clubs in Hampshire Association football clubs established in 2013 Andover, Hampshire 2013 establishments in England University and college football clubs in England Wessex Football League

History

Ground

Records

See also

References

External links