| HISTORY |
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| The club was formally constituted as a football club in 1981. We are affiliated to the London FA. London Youth FA and Kent FA. We currently run 38 teams and play in the Kent Youth League, South London Alliance League, Metropolitan Sunday League, Bexley Junior league, Greater London Women’s league and Southern Girls League. |
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Historically the club has used school and park pitches in various locations, but had never had a central venue that we could call home. Now we have and at Dursley Road we have spent upwards of £50,000 on almost rebuilding the club house, in the process almost exhausting our funds. Long Lane has succeeded in turning a once derelict and vandalised site into one of the best sporting facilities in the South East. The last piece of the jigsaw will be to introduce a grass pitch levelling and drainage programme which will give the pitches better chance to cope with the heavy demands of games and give the youngsters the opportunity to play their football on a decent playing surface. Every week over 2,000 young boys and girls enjoy and play their sport at Long Lane. |
| In 1997 we became one of only a handful of junior football clubs in the country
to achieve full charitable status. On the 16th Dec 2001 after five years of
trying the club was awarded a record grant of £897,264 from the Football
Foundation and £31,000 from the Football Association. In addition to this club members raised a further £103,000 and altogether the money paid for the all weather floodlit pitch, the new car park, new dressing rooms and the rest of the clubhouse which has the club shop, office and soon to be opened small gym. |
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Another landmark for the club came in May 2002, when the FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION named Long Lane JFC as its NATIONAL CHARTER STANDARD DEVELOPMENT CLUB OF THE YEAR 2002. The club was one of the first to receive the award which the FA give to clubs that prove a continuing level of good practice in the running of their club, and the care and treatment of its members. This award truly rounded off a wonderful phase in the clubs history. On the pitch our philosophy has always been to provide football for youngsters regardless of their ability. We have had our fair share of success with numerous league championships and cup finals as you can see on our CLUB HONOURS PAGE. Two hopeful signs for the future is that a number of our younger members are being coached at the schools of excellence run by the professional clubs and the fact that playing members who have hung up their boots are now taking over as managers of the younger teams. Founder members of Long Lane were Derek McCarthy, Dave Terry, Bryan Collins, John Cullinane, Hughie Norman, Jim Williamson and John Dursley. Mick Northwood, the current Chief Executive has been associated with the club for over 25 years. He started as a Team Manager, became a member of the Management Committee, Chairman and then Chief Executive in 2002. |