AFC Sodbury making impressive strides in Bristol Premier Sunday League
❝ We snapped it up but had to start from nothing as it contained only one creaking old goal and no markings, and the grass was too long
BEN Greenaway is backing the AFC Sodbury “family” to continue an impressive rise as a local Sunday football force when the playing action finally returns.
The thriving South Gloucestershire club, who base themselves in the neighbouring village of Hawkesbury Upton, set out as a new 11-a-side entity at the start of a 2019-20 Bristol Premier Sunday League season, which ultimately fell prey to the Covid-19 crisis and ended in mid-March.
AFC Sodbury were second in the Division Three standings, beneath only Air Legends, at the time of the stoppage, with 12 wins and three losses to their name from 15 games.
It got even better as Greenaway’s charges were elevated two sections into Division One, the league’s third tier, on the strength of those admirable early efforts. And they haven’t looked back since.
At the latest pause in play, AFC Sodbury were topping the table with five victories and a draw from a six-game unbeaten opening, and they are keeping everything crossed the grassroots game will soon flourish again with so much uncertainty and confusion in life at the moment.
Greenaway said: “It has all been pretty phenomenal for us. We had been just a group of Yate and Sodbury mates playing six-a-side stuff on Wednesday nights on the 3G at Chipping Sodbury School.
“Loads more began getting involved so I got in touch with the FA about organising and funding 11-a-side football, and The Royal Oak (Inn) in Chipping Sodbury got involved sponsoring our red home and yellow away kits and helping financially with badge embroidery etc.
“We would then go to the Oak after every game and spend a few hours there where they’d provide food and we’d buy the drinks.
“Our first game ended in a 12-1 win for us away at P Tavern but we didn’t actually get to play our first home fixture until the back end of October when we beat Tavern again, 14-0.
“That was because we’d needed time to get our new pitch up to scratch in Hawkesbury Upton as it had needed a lot of work doing to it when we first acquired it.”
Of that bold decision to permanently locate the club some eight miles away from their former Chipping Sodbury School haunt, 25-year-old founder member, chairman and first-team boss Greenaway explained: “Much of it boiled down to money. The pitches in our area were off the scale pricewise and some really weren’t of the quality you’d want.
“We did a search on the FA website for pitches nearby and saw one was available at Hawkesbury Upton Village Hall.
“We snapped it up but had to start from nothing as it contained only one creaking old goal and no markings, and the grass was too long. In essence, it was just a field with that one goalpost hanging on for dear life! You had to imagine what it would be like when it was all made good.
“They used to have a team there which folded several years back and it’s such a shame as it must be the best drained pitch there in the whole of the region.
“There’s an old railway on site and the water just sinks through the stones, which means we’ve never had to postpone a game.
“In fact, when visiting teams have rung up ahead of matches to check if it’s still on, I’ve never even gone up there from my Yate home to look at the surface because I know it just doesn’t get waterlogged.”
Inspired by that meritorious, albeit curtailed, maiden campaign last term, AFC Sodbury started their 2020-21 season with an 8-2 home defeat of Spartans in September and with a second string set-up now in tow. They are battling it out in Division Three and have made a useful start too, as three wins and two losses from their five first games suggests.
Greenaway said: “It shows just how far we’ve come that we now have that reserve team. Numbers have just spiralled and we have around 55 players signed on as a club.
“Unfortunately I can’t play these days after having ankle reconstruction a few years ago, but I love being manager and everything else that goes with running it all.
“My short-term ambition is for us to win the league and keep pushing for the Premier Division and for our reserves to keep progressing.
“You can’t achieve these things without good support and I get that from my assistant Bret Palmer, who was Yate United junior manager over many years, looking after the various different age groups there.
“Our sponsor this year is Steve Burden of Kahuna Flooring, who has sorted new home kits for our firsts and reserves, along with tracksuits and t-shirts for everyone.
“Brett and I do a lot behind the scenes but if there’s something to do, the lads all offer to help.
“That hard work paid off recently as we were awarded FA Charter Standard status, which is all about good practice; getting things right on and off the pitch and looking after players and such like. Hopefully having that against our name will attract even more people to get behind us.”
The AFC Sodbury supremo added: “I have a five-month-old son Arlo keeping me and my partner Megan on our toes but the club is also like a family.
“We have seven sets of brothers all playing; my step dad Nathan plays at right-back, while my own brother Rhys is a centre-back.
“There’s a great atmosphere here and everyone gets along and goes out as a group when we’re able to.”
Anyone wishing to follow the fortunes of AFC Sodbury can do so via their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (@afcsodbury on all three) platforms.