About Doveridge Football Club
Becoming Doveridge!
Doveridge Football Club formed at the end 2016 before the beginning of the 2017/2018 football season and was the brain child of Nick Harris who, at the time was vice chairman at Rocester Football Club. Nick had hoped to create a new solid foundation for Rocester with a brand new linked junior section, including a pathway for local players from Sunday league, eventually moving to Saturday league football.
In 2016, the club was known as Rocester FCS (Rocester Football Club Sundays, catchy!). The team played its first season as Rocester in that 17/18 season, based at Hillsfield and for the best part of that season all seemed to go well with the new team doing relatively well in the league standings and young players appearing to build the squad reasonably quickly, the team even reached a cup final. Unfortunately for FCS and in hindsight, for the senior Rocester squad, the idea of a strong, solid foundation behind the Saturday squad rubbed some people up the wrong way and after some differences of opinions, Rocester FCS would last no more than a season.
"Bigger, Better"
Following a big defeat in the cup final, Harris would give the players a speech at the end of the game which clearly stated a wish to keep the team together and for players to stick with the club despite the change of name and venue coming, the promise was that the club was more than just a typical Sunday club and would grow from its cup final defeat and be "bigger and better".
The squad would be relocated and reformed under a new banner in the 18/19 season, not content with just a Men's Sunday squad, but now, through the knowledge and support of Martyn McAulay we had a brand new Ladies team waving the now Doveridge flag high, the first of its kind to play competitively in our area, The Doves were already breaking ground from its first ever season.
The 18/19 season would see even more ground broken when the Men's team would go on that year to bring in the clubs first ever trophy, winning the Uttoxeter and District Division 2 League Championship!
Over the course of the following few seasons, this would become a trend for the Doveridge men as they would go on to win the cup and league double in the Stafford Sunday League as well, now under the tutorage of former player, Nathan Whitaker.
Ladies historic start!
For the ladies, bigger and better was a term that described how they have grown as well, being a club that was finishing in the bottom half of the table in its first couple of seasons, the fortune of the team changed in more recent seasons, with a new manager and numerous new players coming in, the club has back to back finished in the top half of the table and has looked a competitive setup, challenging for long periods at the very top of the Staffordshire County Premier League, as well as making history by being the first ever team to host an FA Cup game in our area, with over 300 people turning out to watch it, the girls would go on to win 3-1.
Junior beginnings!
The impact of the ladies team has been incredible to watch and has inspired a huge change in our local towns with girls teams forming in the shadow of what they are accomplishing, the first of which started with the club in the 19/20 season, right before the world changed because of COVID. Despite that, the wave of progression never faltered and since 2019, our girls teams, which started as an U9 and an U12s squad, is now represented by over 10 teams ranging from U6s to U16s and continues to grow, with the first trophy coming from our U9 Doves in the 22/23 season when the team went on to win the Staffordshire cup.
Merging Interests
In 2021/2022 another landmark change affected the club with the focus continuing to be on "bigger and better" when the two existing Doveridge clubs, one focused on boys football, the other focused on adults and girls football, merged to become one under the banner of the Doves. The club would see an increase in its size of another 6 squads all in boys football which would quickly grow within 2 seasons as Doveridge promoted it had now entered the boys football arena, moving from 6 teams to 16!
Including its after school activities and not forgetting the foundation for all our new players in the tots football that has in itself evolved under the tutorage of Rachael Marklew, the club boasts over 500 players at the point of writing this, over 50 coaches, nearing 100 volunteers and continues to this day to grow "bigger and better" as the club forms lasting relationships with schools and continues to fly the flag proudly for opportunities for boys and men in sport, but also, for equal opportunities to be given to girls and ladies as well.
Our history might not be as long as some other clubs, but it has by no means been quiet and boring.