RETURN HOME IS THE AIM FOR CITY

CANTERBURY City have set a target of 2019 for a return to their home territory after a 20-year absence – and are setting their sights on reaching the National League. This week the Southern Counties East Premier outfit signed a formal agreement to develop a £2 million stadium and community football hub on an eight-acre site at Highland Court in Bridge in the south of the city.

The club have already secured £1.6 million of funding for the project and an application for planning consent is likely to be made later this year.

Chairman Tim Clark, whose ambition is to reach Step 2 within five years of the ground being ready, said: “This will be a fantastic facility that will be unrivalled in Kent and a true community football hub comprising a stadium with 3G pitch and modern two story pavilion including corporate hospitality suite, a second full-size training 3G pitch and smaller youth/five-a-side pitches and ample parking.

“This will be a place from which to make Canterbury great again in football terms. Canterbury City FC has been described as the “sleeping giant” of football in east Kent. The giant is now waking up!”

The original Canterbury City were formed in 1904 and entered the East Kent Thursday League, but folded three years later. They were briefly revived in 1910 and again in 1920, when Canterbury Alliance FC adopted the old name before folding two years later.

A new Canterbury City were formed in the Kent League in 1947, and later joined the Metropolitan League and then the Southern League. In 1964 they lost 6-0 at home to Torquay United in the first round of the FA Cup, and 1-0 at Swindon Town at the same stage the following year.

In 1994, they dropped down to the Kent League and folded in 2001 after the local council evicted them from Kingsmead Stadium.

They were reformed a decade ago in Division Two of the Kent County League, where they worked their way back up the Pyramid, living a nomadic existence.