Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south west London, which currently plays in the Isthmian League South Central Division.

The club was founded in 1885 by YMCA, named Kingston & Surbiton YMCA, and began competing properly in 1893 in the Surrey Junior Cup. There was a split before the start of the 1908–09 season which damaged the club, the two clubs were named Old Kingstonians and Kingston upon Thames A.F.C. After period of quiet during World War I, the two clubs re-united and joined the Athenian League in 1919, named Kingstonian. In 1929, their application to join the Isthmian League was accepted, and they have competed there to the present day. The club, nicknamed the Ks or the K's, spent three seasons at the highest level of non-league football, 1998–99, 1999–2000 and 2000–01, and have won the FA Trophy twice, in consecutive seasons, in 1999 and 2000.

The club is currently without a home ground, and from 2024 will groundshare with Raynes Park Vale at Prince George's Playing Fields in Raynes Park.

History

Kingston and Surbiton YMCA

Kingstonian was formed in autumn 1885, under the name Kingston & Surbiton YMCA. Over the two years the club played only friendly matches against other football teams in the region. The club's first season as Kingston Wanderers also heralded a change of home ground to the Fairfield Recreation Ground. and Southend United, either side of a win over fellow Conference team Southport – on their way to the FA Cup fourth round, where they were drawn with Bristol City before succumbing to a late winner in the replay, losing 1–0.

Relegation and, moreover, financial problems as a result of overspending in the chase for success, saw a sharp downturn in the club's fortunes with the club entering administration to avoid bankruptcy with debts of £800,000 in October 2001. Property developer, Rajesh Khosla, and his family took over the club with a new company Kingstonian F.C. Limited and was assigned the lease in 2002. In 2003 the then manager Kim Harris said that Khosla, was "raping us" after Khosla sold the Kingsmeadow ground for £2 million in personal profit. whilst making a profit. While this did not save Kingstonian from relegation that year, the 2005–06 season saw Kingstonian Football Club revitalised. They only narrowly missed out on the promotion playoffs and finished their season by beating AFC Wimbledon in the final of the Surrey Senior Cup at Woking's ground 1–0.

Changes continued during mid-2006 with Mark Anderson and Malcolm Winwright taking charge of the club, installing Stuart McIntyre as successor to Ian McDonald in the role of head coach. However, McIntyre's stay in the role was brief and "unsuccessful", being replaced by Tommy Williams.

With former Ks midfielder Tommy Williams installed as manager, the club again reached the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round, losing 3–2 to a last minute goal against Eastbourne Borough. The league campaign saw the club make late challenge for the play-offs falling short in the last couple of weeks of the season. In his second season, the 2015-16 campaign saw the Ks lift their first cup in ten years, winning the Isthmian League Cup with a 5–0 victory over Faversham Town. The 2016–17 season started poorly with the club just outside the relegation zone with six games remaining. Tommy Williams was replaced as manager by former Billericay Town man Craig Edwards. He led the club to a 16th-place finish after a five match unbeaten run to end the season. Ks left the Kingsmeadow Stadium at the end of the season and moved to Fetcham Grove to groundshare with Leatherhead. Edwards resigned in October 2017 and was replaced by former Whyteleafe manager Leigh Dynan.

At the beginning of the 2018–19 season, Kingstonian moved back to the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and started a ground share with Corinthian-Casuals at King George's Field. A difficult season saw Ks have three managers, as Leigh Dynan was replaced by Dean Brennan and then very quickly by stand-in manager Kim Harris - the Ks moved from second place in the table on New Year's Day to escaping relegation by a single place. New manager Hayden Bird joined the club in 2019, only for the 2019–20 season to be curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In that season's FA Cup the Ks reached the first round for the first time since 2000–01, where they defeated Macclesfield Town 4–0 at Moss Rose, before losing 2–0 at home to AFC Fylde in the second round. The 2023–24 season saw Kingstonian relegated from the Premier Division, 15 years after their promotion to that level.

Colours and badge

thumb|Kingstonian's away kit (in yellow) in a 2014 match against Lewes

The team's current crest contains the motto Palmam Qui Meruit Ferat, the motto of Lord Nelson which translates as "Let he who has earned it carry the palm", and is inscribed on the Britannia Monument. Kingstonian's home kit is red and white hooped shirts, black shorts and red socks.

|-

| Prince George's Playing Fields || 2024–2026

Kingstonian remained at Richmond Road for most of the 20th century, it thus being referred to as the club's 'traditional home'. The club's record home attendance of 8,960 was attained there in 1955 in a match against Bishop Auckland.

thumb|Fetcham Grove. Home of Leatherhead FC and shared by Kingstonian during the 2017–18 season.

After a season and a half ground-sharing at Hampton F.C.'s Beveree ground, Kingstonian opened its new Kingsmeadow Stadium (on the site of the old Norbiton Sports Ground owned by Kingston Council) in August 1989. After Kingstonian entered administration to avoid bankruptcy and lost the Kingsmeadow lease in October 2001. It was assigned in April 2002 by the administrators to a property developer, Rajesh Khosla, who was also by then owner of the club. The fans of AFC Wimbledon, who at that point were already sub-tenants at Kingsmeadow, raised £2.4 million to enable them to buy the lease from Khosla in June 2003, with a view to making Kingsmeadow their home in the short term until their intended move to a site in Wimbledon became more feasible for them. Kingstonian secured a financially favourable 25-year sub-tenancy agreement with AFC Wimbledon, with customary break clauses. The clubs operated a ground-sharing arrangement, with Kingstonian receiving preferentially cheap rental terms.

In 2015, AFC Wimbledon sold Kingsmeadow to Chelsea to help finance their plans to move back to a new stadium in Wimbledon. Chelsea's intention was to use Kingsmeadow as a base for their own youth and women's teams, and were unwilling to accommodate Kingstonian. The sale proved detrimental to Kingstonian, unable to play in a ground where the new owners did not want them. and the club was forced to relocate as a result, starting a groundshare with Leatherhead F.C. at their ground at Fetcham Grove for the 2017–18 season. The following season they moved again to King George's Field in Tolworth, sharing with Corinthian-Casuals Kingstonian reached agreement with Tooting & Mitcham United to play at their Imperial Fields stadium for the 2022–23 season.

In February 2024 it was announced that, starting with the 2024/25 season, Kingstonian would be groundsharing with Raynes Park Vale at Prince George's Playing Fields, Grand Drive for at least two seasons.

Current squad

Team management

As of 30 May 2024

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Position !! Name

|-

| Manager || Scott Harris

|-

| Assistant Manager || Tom Williams

|-

| First Team Coach || Tom Bryant

|-

| Physio || Tiffany Weedon

|-

| Kit Managers || Paul Ferrie and Jamie Street

|-

| Head of Development || Nigel James

|-

| Under 18s Team Manager || Anthony Gale

|-

| Head Coach || Seungpil Shin

|-

| Goalkeeping Coach || Mark Barratt

|-

|colspan="2"|Board

|-

|align="left"|Chairman

|align="left"| Yioryos Vasilaras

|-

|align="left"|Life Vice President

|align="left"| Gill Trevor

|-

|rowspan=2 align="left"|Directors

|align="left"| John Bangs OBE

|-

|align="left"| Ben Flatt

|}

Managers

{| class="wikitable"

|-

!style="width:10em"|Name!! colspan="2" |Period

|-

|Peter Gleeson|||November 1957 - April 1967

|

|-

|Tommy Dougall|||April 1967 - October 1970

|

|-

|Vince Burgess|||October 1970 - March 1976

|

|-

|Roy Sleap|||April 1976 - March 1977

|

|-

|Peter Glesson|||March 1977 - May 1978

|

|-

|Barry Rowan|||June 1978 - March 1979

|

|-

|Bill McNully|||March 1979 - May 1979

|

|-

|Ken Ballard|||May 1979 May 1982

|

|-

|Billy Miller|||May 1982 - March 1986

|

|-

|Chris Kelly|||March 1986 - May 1994

|

|-

|Richard Parkin|||June 1993 - October 1994

|

|-

|Micky Droy|||October 1994 - January 1995

|

|-

|Chris Kelly|||January 1995 - May 1995

|

|-

|Billy Smith|||May 1995 - September 1996

|

|-

|Micky Cook|||November 1996 - January 1997

|Caretaker manager

|-

|Graham Westley|||December 1996 – 1997

|

|-

|Geoff Chapple|||June 1997 – June 2001

|

|-

|Bill Williams||August 2001– October 2001

|

|-

|Steve Sedgley||October 2001 – December 2002

|

|-

|Kim Harris||December 2002 – August 2004

|

|-

|Scott Steele||August 2004 – March 2005

|

|-

|Ian McDonald||March 2005 – May 2006

|

|-

|Stuart McIntyre||May 2006 – January 2007

|

|-

|Alan Dowson||January 2007 – May 2014

|

|-

|Kim Harris (interim)||October 2017

|

|-

|Leigh Dynan ||October 2017 – February 2019

|

|-

|Dean Brennan||February 2019 – March 2019

|

|-

|Kim Harris (interim) ||March 2019 – April 2019

|

|-

|Hayden Bird ||May 2019 – June 2022

|

|-

|Lee O'Leary

|June 2022 – November 2022

|

|-

|Spencer Knight

|November 2022 – February 2023

|

|-

|Simon Lane

|February 2023 - February 2024

|

|-

|Tutu Henriques

|February 2024 – April 2024

|

|-

| Scott Harris

|April 2024 – October 2024

|

|-

| Scott Harris

|October 2024 – present

|

|}

Honours

Kingstonian's first final came in 1896, when they came second in the Surrey Junior Cup. A notably prolific spell for the club came in the 1930s, when they won seven, and came runners up in two competitions. The dual FA Trophy victories in 1998–99, 1999–2000 were both at Wembley Stadium, and the 2000 final was the last ever FA Trophy final at the old Wembley before the current stadium was built.

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+Honours won by Kingstonian F.C.

!scope=col|Honour

!scope=col|No.

!scope=col|Years

|-

!scope=row|Isthmian League

|align=center| 3

|1933–34, 1936–37, 1997–98 (1947–48, 1962–63, 2013–14 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|Isthmian League Division One

|align=center|0

|(1984–85 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|Football Conference Charity Shield

|align=center|1

|1999 (runners up 2000)

|-

!scope=row|FA Trophy

|align=center|2

|1998–99, 1999–2000

|-

!scope=row|FA Amateur Cup

|align=center|1

|1932–33 (1959–60 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|Conference League Cup

|align=center|0

|(1999–2000, 2000–01 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|Isthmian League Cup

|align=center| 2

|1995–96, 2015–16 (1981–82 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|Isthmian League Charity Shield

|align=center| 2

|1994–95, 1995–96

|-

!scope=row|Surrey Senior Cup

|align=center| 13

|1910–11, 1913–14, 1925–26, 1930–31, 1931–32, 1934–35, 1938–39, 1951–52, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1966–67, 1997–98, 2005–06 (1906–07, 1936–37, 1947–48, 1949–50, 1972–73, 1990–91, 2002–03, 2021–22 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|Surrey Junior Cup

|align=center| 0

|(1896–97 runners up)

|-

!scope=row|London Senior Cup

|align=center| 3

|1962–63, 1964–65, 1986–87 (1923–24, 1925–26, 1930–31, 1946–47, 1983–84, 2011–12 runners up)

|-

|}

Records

  • Record win: 15–1 v DHC Delft (1951)
  • Record defeat: 3–12 v Bishop Auckland (1955)
  • Most club appearances: Rob Tolfrey – 565*
  • Most club goals: Johnny Whing – 295
  • Record fee paid: £18,000 – Dave Leworthy (from Rushden & Diamonds, 1997)
  • Record fee received: £150,000 – Gavin Holligan (to West Ham United, 1998)
  • Record attendance: 9,844 v Bishop Auckland (Richmond Road, 1955)
  • FA Cup best performance: Fourth round, 2000–01
  • FA Amateur Cup best performance: Winners, 1932–33
  • FA Trophy best performance: Winners, 1998–99, 1999–00

Former players

References

  • Match Archive site
  • Full History Archives