Club History

Petersfield Town Football Club was formed in 1993 following the demise of Petersfield United, which had been the town's principle football club since its formation in 1889, and had been playing in Diadora (Isthmian League) Division 3 in its final season of 1992/93.

Hopes were high of an upturn in the fortunes of Petersfield football when Peter De Sisto became the new clubs chairman. The club was accepted into the Wessex League with former Tottenham and England defender Gary Stevens, as manager. Unfortunately this proved to be a false dawn and the club failed to prosper. Eventually, matters came to a head early in 1995 when the Petersfield Town Council refused to grant a lease on the Love Lane ground (former home of Petersfield United and used by Petersfield Town since its formation)

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The club was therefore forced to tender its resignation from the Wessex League at the end of the 1994/95 season. Fortunately the club was saved by a consortium headed by local businessman Geoff Goad and at the Wessex AGM was re-elected for 1995/96. Major efforts were then made by the committee to restore credibility to the club and to make various ground improvements. The team built from scratch under the management of Tony Adams achieved the clubs target for 1995/96 of Wessex League survival. For 1996/97 Mick Jenkins joined as joint manager.

After a decent start, results took a turn for the worse and a nail biting finish to the season ended in relegation to the Hampshire League. Tony Adams left the club to be succeeded by Ernie Turrell and Nigel Yates, and with a completely re-built team centered on local players. A poor run of results culminated in their resignation in January 1998. Mick Catlin and Bruce Kendall took over and although results improved dramatically relegation could not be avoided.

For 1998/99 a determined bid was made for the Division Two title and for most of the season the club topped the table only for Paulsgrove to produce a fantastic late run to push the club into second spot. In the Hampshire Premier Division, newly formed for season 1999/2000 the club made a strong start but fell away to finish 16th. Mick Catlin left to join Havant & Waterlooville and Bruce Kendall took sole charge for 2000/01. Again the club was in contention for honours before finishing a creditable 9th.

Season 2001/02 was disappointing with a 15th place finish and 2002/03 was heading the same way before a superb late run lifted the club to 10th. In the summer of 2003 Bruce Kendall unexpectedly left to join Fleet Town. Mark Burton and Richard Archibald moved up to run the first team until work commitments forced Richard to step down, to be succeeded by Mick Cripps. The team finished in a modest 14^th position. For 2004/05 the club competed in the newly formed Wessex League Division 2, and proceeded to finish in an excellent 4^th position.

The following seasons were difficult times but under Mick Cripps guidance managed to play attractive without often securing the points and Petersfield struggled in the bottom half of the league. During the 2006/2007 in the re-structured Wessex Division 1, Petersfield Town finished strongly and were in the top half of the form table over the last dozen matches. However, Mick Cripps decided to resign after the last match and was replaced by Paul Ryan who made the switch from Horndean, two months before the season ended.

Upon being installed as 1^st Team Manager, Paul’s first decision was to bring in David Burley who he had previously worked with. Matthew Short has also joined the coaching staff having played for Petersfield for a number of years in the nineties. The Reserve Team will remain under the reins of Alex Bone with Stuart Smith joining from Rogate as Joint Manager. Alex and Stuart have a vast knowledge of the local football scene and will provide a team based on developing the best available talent with a view to progressing to the 1^st team.

Already with the strengthening of the Management, Coaching and Playing staff the 2007/2008 season is being approached with much anticipation. It promises to be the most challenging, yet exciting season for a number of years, with hopes high for a top half finish, leading to a promotion challenge in the following seasons.