The rise and rise of Ironside FC
13 Oct 2007

Ironside F.C. were formed in 1990 by a group of John Fisher School old boys, under the management of John Scanlon and Dean Murphy. We can also reveal that, despite concocting many more interesting stories over the years by way of explanation, the founding members came up with the name Ironside for no other reason than the fact that the TV detective programme, “Ironside”, was on in the pub at the time! (That’s right folks, the detective in the wheelchair).

The club began life in the Mitcham league, where it played for four seasons, gaining promotion once. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately given the passing of time, none of the founding squad remain with the Club today. The sole aim of the club back in the early 90’s was a desperate desire to find a home ground that was more amenable than Poulter Park in Rose Hill, Sutton. Our home for the first few seasons, Poulter Park had required players to hump goal posts, cross bars and nets for miles from the changing room to the pitch. These all then required putting up, followed by playing the game, which to be quite frank, nobody was interested in after the labour intensive morning they had already been through! Then they all needed to be taken down again, humped all the way back to the changing rooms, before players could shower, change and head off home just in time for tea! Oh how different things are these days at Nescot. Warm showers, nets already up for us. We will not be leaving there in a hurry, I can assure you!

In 1994 the club joined the Morden & District league, initially in Division 8. Over the next few years the club gained promotion once, before finding itself desperately close to folding around 1998, which would probably have been the case but for a couple of new players deciding to come along to training. Ironside struggled over the next 3-4 years, when only the keenness and loyalty of a very small squad kept the club afloat. Not surprisingly, as a result of playing many games with nine or ten men, results were distinctly average at best, and the club suffered a couple of relegations during this period, rarely managing to reach a points total in double figures!

It was around this time that the management duo of John Scanlon and Dean Murphy realised that they were unlikely to ever achieve any of their dreams within the game, and the team was left in the hands of Mike Walsh. Ironside even merged with a team from Division 3 (AFC Tornados) and played as their reserve side. Roger Osborne, seeing the massive potential at Ironside – sorry, that should have read massive task - took over as team manager for a couple of seasons, sharing duties with Mike. Such was the enjoyment he got from his duties that Roger remains with the club today in a number of guises - Director of Football, Youth Development Officer, Physio, attendee at league meetings and dodgy linesman to name but a few. A terrific bloke, who is well liked and respected by the team, Roger will was delighted to receive the Linesman of the Year Award 2005/6.

The last two or three seasons have seen a gradual improvement, with an injection of youth into the side as the club saw the departures for a variety of reasons of some of its old stalwarts. Results were usually better in the second half of each season, and often Ironside would lose half of their games by an odd goal, but there were occasions when Ironside turned over teams at the top of the league and closing in on titles.

The club endured a two-year stint with “Mr Memory” (Dean Fenton) as the team secretary, during which time the club received more fines than in any other season, not due to indiscipline, but rather, due to the fact that ‘Slim’ has the worst memory in living history. You name it; he forgot it! Consequently, we received fines for all sorts of administrative errors or omissions. Things are no better these days as he even forgets we have played teams who we played the week before, although one thing Dean did remember during his tenure as Team Secretary was to turn up for the club tour to Amsterdam in May 2003. Surprise surprise Deano! A great trip for those that attended; a bit of window-shopping and an assortment of memories for those not too comotosed by drink or other substances, or so I am led to believe anyway.

In order to prevent the club going under financially, the 2004/5 season saw the appointment of relative newcomers to the club - the Rudge brothers - as joint team secretaries. With careful close season transfer dealings, suddenly the club had a squad, which, whilst still small in number, was far more reliable and consistent. Some pre-season friendlies and training gave rise to a vastly improved start to the season, form that has continued throughout the year. Indeed, other than for a couple of losses in the two games before Christmas when the squad was a little thin – Neil was probably on one of his many holiday jaunts at the time - we could have been in with a shout of the Division 9 title. Nonetheless a forty point haul from 18 games represents a very good return for a club more used to single digit totals, and resulted in a third place finish and promotion to Division 8.

The 2004/5 season however was most notable for arguably the clubs proudest moment – The Hickey Cup Final. Following a fantastic 3-0 away victory to AC Croygas in the semi-final (thanks to an Andy Rudge hat-trick), a daunting debut final appearance against Sutton Heritage at Sutton United FCs Gander Green Lane ground lie ahead. Sutton Heritage were at that stage two divisions ahead of Ironside and expected to show much more pedigree in the pressure cooker atmosphere of a Final. It is fair to say both sides got off to a nervy start on what had to be one of the hottest April days in memory. There was a decent attendance on the day with the WAGS providing most of the vocal support and a member of Kevin Truswell’s family recording the events. Ironside even went to the expense of purchasing a new kit and training wear to mark the occasion (replica’s shortly to be available on the website!).

The match was a tense affair with both sides going close but unable to break the deadlock during the regulation 90 minutes. It is probably fair to say that Ironside weathered a storm during the last 10 minutes of the game including a glaring miss by the Heritage centre forward from a full 5 yards.

However, Ironside regained their composure and placed Heritage under mounting pressure. With 4 minutes remaining on the clock an often attempted but rarely successful back heel from Darren Smith fell perfectly into the path of Andy Rudge who beat his man and shot powerfully past the keeper from 25 yards. The crowd (and the Ironside players) went wild.

The drama was not yet over. With only seconds remaining on the watch, and with Heritage slinging balls high into the Ironside box, Iain Hudson was alleged to have pulled the shirt of the Heritage Centre Forward and the referee awarded a penalty. Actually, most people thought it was Kevin Truswell who gave the penalty away, and Hudders wasn’t quick in coming forward to own up. The tension could be cut with a knife. Matty Burton, who had been excellent all year and would go on to the names Player of the Season, made himself big and stared the striker between the eyes. With a hostile Ironside support jeering in his ears, the Heritage striker ran anxiously up towards the ball and screwed his effort wide of the upright. The final whistle blew and Ironside history was created.

There were scenes of wild celebration in Wimbledon that night, including the Hickey Cup being on sight at the Walkabout, as well as Matty taking in the World Nacho Eating Record!

The 2005/6 season was characterised with challenges faced by all teams following promotion. Ironside struggled to find goals but remained solid at the back, often losing their initial encounters by a single goal. A severe run of injuries and lots players however badly damaged the squad, and the season became a struggle to survive. There was silver lining to this particular cloud however in that the acquisition of new talented players such as Ross Leach, Mike Reed and Scott Fletcher ensured that this was a season of transition rather than collapse, and has set the foundations for our assault on the Division 8 title this year.

During the summer of 2006 Ironside added further to their squad, aquiring some emerging talent in the form of Sam Kelly, Luke and Murray Burton, along with the transfer of Matt Little from Tooting Park Rangers. Terrific team spirit, togetherness, and reliability of a squad of just 14 or15 players led to a fantastic season in which Ironside won the Division 8 title, recording in the process the highest number of points in any of the divisions (55 out of a possible 63). Players' Player of the Season, Murray Burton, bagged a phenominal 35 goals, but the whole squad played well throughout the campaign.

As if the title was not enough, the team also made a return to the final of the Hickey Cup, our scond appearance in 3 seasons, and against another side from a higher division in Nott Athletic Sadly, in seering heat, the team put in one of its most lacklustre performances of the season, strangely out of character with what had otherwise been an almost unblemished season. With players on both sides dropping like flies with cramp, and the match once again requiring extra time, Ironside were ultimately undone when the referee awarded a penalty following Ross Leach's brushing past a Nott Athletic striker, who performed a triple pike and summersault before landing on the ground at the referee's feet. No amount of protestation could make the referee see the that he had been conned, and the resultant spot-kick ended up as the only goal of the game despite Ironside's frantic efforts to level the scores. A slightly more subdued evening was held than had been the case in 2005, but the following week we finished the league campaign and celebrated our title success.

There were, not surprisingly, no departures over the summer, and just one addition to the squad in the shape of Mickey Stallard, who despite a number of years polying his trade and winning trophies in higher divisions, has jumped at the chance to play once more for Roger Osborne's team and get aboard the Ironside bandwagon! There was also a change in the managerial structure with Andy Rudge wishing to concentrate on the commercial aspect of running the club - and quickly secured a new sponsorhip deal with dry cleaning giants Press 2 Dress. The on the field running of the club is now in the hands of Paul 'Caddick' Burton after he imressed with his coaching ideas during pre season....think Sammy Lee but much better and with a much smaller waistline!!!

With Nick Goodburn intent on ending his long long career with a double, and playing what has belatedly become known as his "testimonial season", Ironside FC are all set to push for the Division 7 title and intent on adding the Ernest Heamingway Cup to the trophy cabinet in 2007-08.

Watch this space...Come on the Ironside!!!