Ruislip Rovers History
01 Jan 2006

The Rovers Journey. 2006 - present

Back in the winter of late 2005 early 2006 a group of mates and some family members alike realised they/their sons, were feeling too unhealthy and it was about time to do something about it. This was the beginning of the the Ruislip Rovers journey.

For the next few Monday's a selective group met in the Wetherspoons public house in Ruislip Manor to draw up a list of names, they thought would be interested in playing. They were not dissapointed. Every name to a man agreed this was an exceptional idea, many names for the new team were put foward, some good some...not so good, but one name, suggested by the ever creative Sean Brew, stood out and Ruislip Rovers was formed. This was thanks mainly to Steve Long and his father Steve Long Senior who did the vast majority of the paperwork and organisation, and how glad we are they did.

The first Management team would need to be decided and two names were put forward, Chris Cooper and Paul Gibbs, with Antony Jeffery unanimously being voted as Club captain and Dave Cooper being selected as Vice Captiain. They would take the reigns for the first two season to great success.
The first game would be an induction game against division 3 outfit Parkway, a tough start for the newly named Rovers you would think, not half of it as the Rovers ran out easy winners chalking up a 3-1 victory.

Despite this victory the Rovers were to be placed in Division 7 for their first season, the bottom tier of the league it must be said. They would get off to a slow start and found themselves bottom of the league at Christmas. 2007 would be the turning point however as the Rovers remained unbeaten for the remainder of the season and would eventually finish second and would be promoted to Division 5 for the following season.

The step up would not be a problem for the Rovers however as they began the season in exceptional form, only losing 1 game in their first 10. Lawrence Whetton would take over from Paul Gibbs to partner Chris Cooper as co-manager. Their now closesed rivals Hillingdon United, later to be re-named Martin Bakers, would be their closes challengers for the title and it would take a 4-0 victory on the second last day of the season to pip their rivals to the Title. The Rovers had their first silverware under their belt. The start of things to come we all hoped.

Becoming league champions seemed to get a mixed reaction however and the Rovers, now in Division 4, struggled for consistancy at the beginning of their third season and found themselves mid table after 5 games with 2 wins and 2 loses to their name, but in usual Rovers fashion they finished the season strongly to finish third only a few points of the eventual winners Larkspur Rovers under the guidance of new management team of Rickie Heere, Lawrence Whetton and Steve Long, who would take over from Heere midway through the season. The cup however was a different story as the Rovers failed a single cup victory, a pattern was forming.

So to Division 2 for the 2009/2010 season, with Steve Long and Kev Baker now in charge, the Rovers started brightly and found themselves unbeaten in the league going into the new year. However a drop in form saw them languish dangerously close to the drop zone until a late season revival saw the Rovers finish comfortably midtable in the end, finishing 5th.
Cup form let the Rovers down once again as they only managed one cup victory all season against a poor Spartan United side. Will we ever win a cup?

Co Manager Steve Long Jnr was to step down after the 2009/10 season to later be replaced by Pete Kenny, who would take joint charge with current Co gaffer Kev Baker.
What will the 2010/1 season season bring, where the Rovers will once again compete in the 2nd Division of the newly named Hayes Middlesex Sunday football league, will there be another league title? a cup final, or atleast a cup run?, who knows, but one thing we can be shore of is the Ruislip Rovers Journey is still going strong and will be for many years to come.
Watch this space

WHATS IT ALL ABOUT!!!!

Please below for the Historical data of the Rovers players achievements at the presentation nights.