History Of FCDA

Before we were

FCDA

Our history is rich with a lot of footballing experience. Over a decade ago we were Durrington FC, a local family park team, formed by a group of friends, and run by a local family, all wanting to compete in the Leagues rather than challenging other kids in the area to games of football down the park during the Summer.

Over the years with Durrington FC we achieved a mix of results, even coming close to winning 2 titles in the 2nd to last season, missing out in the final of the League Cup and coming Runners Up in the League itself.

Sadly due to numbers and personal commitments, Durrington FC was folded, and all players went either to other teams or concentrated on other aspects of life.

Enter

FC Durrington Athletic

Our chairman Craig Gibson, after 3 years of constantly badgering about forming a team again, finally convinced General Manager, James Tilley to Co-Found FC Durrington Athletic.

The exact words used by James, was "If we are going to do this, let's do it properly. I am tired of teams that don't value their players and i want to make this team, we build, into a club and community".

So the recruitment started.

Managing to recall 14 members from Durrington FC and more each week, through word of mouth, they were able to form a team.

Despite missing out on League registrations that year, the lads concentrated on getting ready and match fit, for the following Season. Training hard every week and strengthening.

Our first Season

SSFL Division 8

In 2022, we entered the Sussex Sunday Football League, due to being told that the local League was folding.

We aimed high in the friendlies for Pre-season, however, found the teams we were facing were a lot more organised and had been together for years. Our results reflected this, but the spirit at the club, never faltered.

With over 30 Players Registered, in the League we started of slow, missing out by narrow margins in our first few games.

Following the introduction of a few new players and our collaboration with a Saturday Side, we began to turn things around and the results started flowing.

It came completely down to the wire at the end of the season, where we were sitting top of the division, with the 2nd (2pts behind) and 3rd place (4pts behind) teams yet to face each other.

Luckily we were done a solid and ended up finishing the League, winning the title.

Our 2nd Season

SSFL Division 4 & Division 6

Following our Division Title and word spreading of our unique ways of running the team, we had the interest of over 40 players to register for the team.

The only way forward was to form a second.

Both teams worked hard in the pre-season with mixed teams to start with, which lead to the rosters being done for First and Second Teams later in Pre-season.

With the First Team, achieving good and promising results in their campaign, the Second team had the other end of the results. We knew it would be a learning curve for them, as some had not played football before or for a while.

The Clubs expectations for this season was very low and concentrated on gelling the teams over the season.

Both teams finished mid-table in both divisions.

Enter

FCDA Youth and Womens

While the Season 23-24 was underway, General Manager, James Tilley, decided to multitask and as well as managing the First Team, he started the process of structuring a Youth System and advertising for players to join.

With numbers not quite high enough for teams to be entered into competition, the concentration was put on developing players getting them ready for the next season.

Alongside this, and in collaboration with a Pub Charity Team, James also started looking at forming a Women's Recreational and Charity team.

This proved challenging but it has been growing every week, since its formation.

Our Third Season

Yet to be determined..............