Netley Football Club

A Memory of Netley.

I was born in Netley Abbey in 1962. My dad and uncle were joint managers of Netley F.C. who had their ground at the rec down by the waterfront. I was only 11 when my uncle died and 12 years old when my dad died so the memories I have are very few and far between. I do remember that when we had football matches, I used to run on the pitch at half time with the orange quarters and I used to stand there and cheer them on with my wooden rattle, religiously. At the end of matches we usually congregated in the Red Lion public house along Victoria Road. I also remember that my dad and uncle built changing rooms on the field and it had a tree stuck out of the middle of it, if I remember rightly it was because they weren't allowed to cut the tree down. There was also a time when one of our players broke his leg in a tackle and as there were no mobile phones then, we had to run across the road to knock on someone's door to ask them to telephone an ambulance. If we went to away matches we used to catch the coach at the bottom of Denzil Avenue (where I lived). I remember vaguely that there was a write-up about my dad in the Football Echo at around the time of his death. I am looking for any articles or photos on this matter. There are so many memories hidden at the back of my mind, having being born and gone to school there, most of my old schoolfriends lived there, but unfortunately those memories are not as good as they used to be and due to the early death of my dad I seem to have closed that part of my memory, but I would dearly love to rekindle them.

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