History of Hanwell Town Football Club

Hanwell Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club that represent Hanwell and are currently playing in Perivale in the London Borough of Ealing in England. At present they are playing in the Isthmian League South Central Division and sit second in a promising season on 58 points. Due to the coronavirus the season has been abandoned and will look to restart next season. Hanwell play their home games at The Powerday Stadium in Perivale after moving to the ground in 1981 after playing at The Ealing Central Sports Ground for over twenty years.

Hanwell Town was founded in 1920 by a group of workers from Newcastle working in the area to help build the London Underground. This explains their nickname ‘The Geordies’ and their use of black and white striped jerseys which are still used today.

In 1924 to 1927 Hanwell played in the London League and manged to win their first major honour in the Middlesex F.A Junior Charity Cup in 1926, sharing with Roxeth and Harrow Old Boys. Very little is known about the club before their disbandment due the outset of the second world war.

The club eventually reformed in 1947/1948 joining the Dauntless League where they successfully earned promotion in four successive seasons. The Geordie’s remained in the Dauntless League with a third eleven, the club moved to the Harrow Wembley and District League until 1969/1970. However, they did not manage to gain any silverware as they failed to win a numerous of cup finals in many league and county competitions. Promotion was eventually claimed to the Middlesex County League. Hanwells current chairman Bob Fisher manged to captain his side to winning the League cup in their first season. The club carried on playing their football in the Middlesex County League during the 1970’s which happened to be their last seasons playing at Ealing Central Sports Ground. In June 1981 they reached their ultimate ambition of having their own ground by moving to their current home, Reynolds Field. The ground was first used for the 1981/1982 season then were given Senior status for the start of the 1983/84 season. This allowed The Geordies to join The London Spartan League where they won the Senior Division in their first season. This enabled promotion to the Premier Division where they remained until the Spartan League and South Midlands League combined in 1997/1998.

Throughout the 1990’s Hanwell showed off some fantastic football helping them to cup success winning The London Senior Cup in 1991/1992 and 1992/1993 and also losing in the final in 1993/1994. A reoccurrence started to form as they reached another final in the Spartan League cup but lost out to Willesden Hawkeye at The Valley. In 1992/1993 and 2000/2001 they were finalists in the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup but lost out both times to Harrow Borough and Ashford Town.

Due to finishing 12th in the Spartan South Midlands League in 1997/1998 they had to compete in the senior division in the following season. At the end of the 1997/1998 more change awaited as their manager Roy Nairn stood down after 11 years in charge. He was replaced by former player Ray Duffy as Roy remained at the club coaching. The Geordies claimed promotion to the Premier Division straight away as they finished runners up, loosing out on goal difference to Holmer Green. Hanwell kept consistent in the upcoming seasons by mostly finishing in the top half and also claimed their first cup success in ten years by beating Harefield United in the Premier Division Cup final in the 2002/2003 season.

Throughout the next 10 years Hanwell found themselves up and down as they found themselves in the Premier Division, Southern League, The British Gas Business Southern League and The Molten Spartan South Midlands League. With the adjustment to continuous promotions and relegations, mangers started to change a lot. After Ray Duffy resigned in 2006 former assistant manager Danny Vincent and former player Pat Gavin took charge. During their time in in the Southern League, Vincent and Gavin stood down as managers. Former player Chris Boothe became manager but shortly left at the end of the 2007/2008 season.

In the 2010/2011 leading goalscorer Keith Rowland took charge with Jason Tucker becoming assistant manager. Their first season did not end well as they finished 15th. Another season of bad form and disappointment the club agreed to let Rowlands and Tucker go just before the end of the season in hope of avoiding relegation. After Tommy Williams and Luke Evans were brought in for managerial replacements, they did not manage to climb to safety however, due to the demise of clubs at level four meant Hanwell were able to avoid being dropped a division. The following season Williams and Evans resigned, so the club brought back Ray Duffy to help maintain safety and improve for the future. His first season back in charge was a success as they finished 6th, but the 2013/2014 season turned out even better as they won The Spartan South Midlands League by a huge margin of fourteen points.

After promotion to the Southern League Central Division they claimed another very successful season as they looked comfortable finishing 7th in the highest division they have ever played in. A final defeat in The Middlesex Senior Cup was extremely disappointing as it was the first time in history they had reached this point. Ray Duffy made his resignation at the end of the season in hope of Hanwell generating a fresh start for the upcoming season. Phil Granville took over but could not make to impact everyone hoped and was quickly sacked. Duffy was brought in again to drive the club in to safety. After a tight end to the season Duffy successfully prevented the club from being relegated.

(Ray Duffey)

The following season looked like a huge improvement as they claimed a mid-table finish with hopes of even better to come. However, this was not the case as the club found themselves to close to the bottom of the table. After being involved with 997 games for the club as a player and a manager Duffy was ready to say his final goodbyes. Chris Moore and Wayne Carter stepped up to the challenge and became joint managers for the 2019/20 season.

(Chris Moore) (Wayne Carter)