Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and in this video, we’re talking about the history of Caversham United Football Club. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.
Caversham United is located in Caversham, which is a suburb of the borough of Reading. Reading is located in the southern central part of England in the United Kingdom. It is about 40 miles directly west of London.
The club currently play in the Reading and District Sunday League Division Two. Sunday League does not have a proper pyramid but likely the equivalent of a division 10 league in England. Caversham’ home ground for this season is the Ibis Club on Scours Lane. The club moved there in the summer of 2019 because their previous home ground of the Mapledurham Playing Fields was under refurbishment. Since the home ground is an open field, seating capacity is however many people can fit in a field.
Origin
Caversham United was founded by the current chairman and manager, Paul Gutteridge in the summer of 2015. Caversham had previously been a club in existence in many different iterations but it was most recently AFC Palmer before becoming Cav. The club was poorly run and needed a makeover, hence a new name, kit and badge followed the birth of Caversham United.
The club was saved from the brink of collapse in 2015 and has a very different identity in 2019, which is when we are recording this video.
Nickname
The club is nicknamed the Billy Goats. The nickname came as a result of a Twitter poll with the club’s followers. The nickname refers to the Billy Goats Gruff tale, which is a children’s story about billy goats crossing a bridge with a troll underneath it. The story is linked to the town of Caversham’s infamous bridges, hence, the nickname of Billy Goats.
Crest
Let’s take a look at the club’s crest now.
The crest was designed by Victor Rey following a Twitter competition and vote. The poll received over 2,000 votes.
The goat symbolizes the club’s nickname and the goat is walking across the famous Caversham bridge.
The water under the bridge represents the River Thames, which runs through Caversham.
The club’s founding or rebranding year of 2015 is listed along with the club’s name in the outer ring of the circle.
And the colors mark the club’s new identity as the modern Caversham United. They are similar to the club’s first badge which was navy.
Important Events
I’d like to discuss 5 important events in the club’s history in this section.
First, in the summer of 2015, the current management seized the reigns of the club after the previous management duo of Kevin and Perry accumulated just 4 points in the 2014-2015 season. They were sacked with immediate effect and Paul Gutteridge took over.
Moving forward to October 2018. The club decided to become more active on Twitter, in an attempt to gain engagement and a social media following. They have since accumulated more than 5,500 followers, which is amazing for a small Sunday League team in England.
One month later, in November 2018, Caversham United began a partnership with Football Kitbox which resulted in a rebranding of the club. In addition to the rebrand, Football Kitbox sent Caversham United kits all over the world. It was a fantastic marketing move by the club and greatly increased the club’s social following.
In April 2019, the club won a double promotion to Division 2 at the expense of Borussia Teeth. This was the club’s first silverware.
And lastly in July of 2019, the inaugural #CavershamCup was held. This was a tournament organized by Caversham United amongst other clubs active on social media. The tournament raised over £2000 for a charity called Balls to Cancer.
Supporters
Since October 2018, the club has become active on social media, gaining over 6,500 followers between Twitter & Instagram. These followers designed and voted on the clubs badge, kit and nickname. Caversham United is the people’s club!
Noteworthy Players
Joe Hales is a club legend. Hales scored 23 goals in the 2018-2019 season and is the club’s all-time record goal scorer. He is already off the mark in the 2019-2020 season and will continue to add to his goal scoring tally.
Tommie Tank is the club’s clean sheet record holder. He occasionally turns up very hungover to games, but is still able to keep the ball out of the net for the opposition.
Michael Morrison left the club during the 2017-18 season. Morrison was uniquely talented. He had the ability to get injured in every single game that he played. This is how his career ended too, having a game abandoned under what seemed to be a pretty dubious injury.
Chris Kurton lacked match fitness but had an amazing ability to score stunning goals from anywhere on the pitch, particularly against Burghfield FC. Like Morrison, Kurton left during the 2017-18 season.
Lastly, Neville Swift is an absolute journeyman of Sunday League football in Reading. He is 50 years young and still going. Swift knows every single club and player there is. If Nev doesn’t know it, it’s not worth knowing.
Noteworthy Managers
Paul Gutteridge is the current first team manager and has been since the club’s formation. Stats aren’t available, but his record is mixed. The first three seasons of his tenure, Caversham struggled in the lower half of the table including a bottom place finish in 2017-18.
However, the 2018-2019 season was a turning point for the club. Paul guided the club to runners up in the league, plus a league cup semifinal appearance. This was followed by a Burghfield tournament win and a GoatMilkCup win at the Caversham Cup tournament. His style is a 4-3-3 model with a holding midfielder. Paul wants to play the proper way with the ball on the ground!
Rivals
The Billy Goats have 2 main rivals: Borussia Teeth & Burghfield FC
Borussia Teeth are big rivals after the culmination of the 2018-2019 season. With two games to play, Caversham were 3 points clear with a worse goal difference in the race for promotion. In the penultimate game the two clubs met. Borussia Teeth won the game with a last minute goal to make it 3-2. However, the goal was scored by an unregistered player. Borussia Teeth admitted cheating and the league reversed the result meaning Caversham were promoted. The rivalry has resparked as Teeth are a bit salty about being a division below Caversham this season but this is a relatively friendly rivalry.
Caversham stated they felt like they have played Burghfield FC about 85 times in recent years. Burghfield barely beat Caversham to the title in the 2018-2019 season. The Billy Goats did end Burghfield’s unbeaten season attempt and then beat them on penalties at their own tournament. So the 2018-2019 season added fuel to this growing rivalry.
Stats & Records
The stats and records we’re about to discuss are as of October/November 2019, which is when we are recording this video.
The Billy Goats have only recently made it out of the bottom flight of the Reading Sunday League, being promoted two divisions to division 2 after the 2018-2019 season. Division 2 is the fourth division in the Sunday league structure and as we already mentioned is likely the equivalent of the 10th division in the English football/soccer pyramid.
The club has 2 trophies:
- 2019 Burghfield Tournament
- 2019 Goat Milk Cup
Caversham United’s longest serving current player is Brandon D’Souza but he has been plagued with injuries over those years. Paul Gutteridge has probably made the most appearances since the incarnation of Caversham United in 2015. He is the manager so that might be why.
Talisman Joe Hales is the top scorer in the club history. He was golden boot winner in the 2018-19 season with 23 goal and already has at least 1 goal in the 2019-2020 season.
The legend that is Tommie Tank is the club’s all-time clean sheet record holder! He must have had at least 4 last season, which is a record for Caversham!
The club paid a £10 admin fee to the league for Alex Coleman in the summer of 2019. That is the club’s record signing.
And the club doesn’t have any record transfer sales yet.
And one last interesting fact about the club: Caversham United can boast that its shirt has been sold on at least 3 continents. That is mind blowing for a little Sunday League team run from a mobile phone, which is how they provided me all of these details. It’s truly impressive stuff.
So there you have it… a bit of history on Caversham United Football Club. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below the video. Thanks for stopping by the Soccer Tavern. Hope to see you again soon. And remember: we’re all goats, aren’t we!? Cheers!
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