LRBC FC History
03 Sep 2009

LRBC FC was formed in 2001, in a joint venture with Highlands Methodist Church, to enter the Southend Churches 7-a-Side Competition. With an inexperienced team that had never played together before, we struggled to perform, but still had an enjoyable day and it was decided to keep the team together.

As the squad grew in size, we were able to field an 11-a-side team and played a number of friendlies against local churches, including Rayleigh Baptist, Shoebury Baptist and our arch-rivals, Westcliff Baptist. The team continued to grow in experience and confidence, under the management of Alex Todd and in 2004 entered the National Christian Football Festival for the first time. This annual event, held in Manchester, brings together churches from all over the country for a weekend of competitive football and testimony from individuals. With only 11 players in our squad, injuries took their toll and we didn’t collect as many points as we had hoped, but we still had a great weekend and forged strong new friendships.

As the years have gone by, the club has worked hard through training and plenty of friendlies to become more of a force. Each year that we attend the NCFF we see an improvement, culminating in finishing as runners-up in 2008, having been cruelly beaten in an epic penalty-shoot out in the final and semi-finalists in 2009.

The club were also runners-up in the Southend Church Football League Cup in 2009, losing 6 v 1 in the final to Westcliff Baptist Church, after a fine cup run.

The club continues to enter a team in the annual Leigh Road 5-a-side competition and were champions in 2007 and 2008. The annual Boxing Day fixture is the show-piece event of the year for the club, facing an opposition previously made up of the Boys Brigade, but this year competing against a Love Southend team.