Champions of the Ryman League Division One North with three games to spare last season, AFC Sudbury are a relatively new club born on 1st June 1999 with the amalgamation of Sudbury Town and Sudbury Wanderers. Yet their relative youth belies a rich history of football in the Suffolk market town with Sudbury Town one of the founder clubs of the Suffolk County FA in 1885, eight years before the lads of Dulwich Hamlet first gathered to form our own team. Town proved a valiant cup fighting team earning giant killing credential with a FA Cup First Round defeat of Brighton & Hove Albion before succumbing to Brentford at the next stage. The FA Vase also provided much joy for the local football fanatics. Finalists in 1989, a then record attendance of 26,478 watched the final against Tamworth at the old Wembley Stadium. After a 1-1 draw in the first encounter Tamworth triumphed 3-0 in the replay at Peterborough United’s London Road stadium. In addition, Sudbury Town reached the semi-finals twice and also one quarter-final. Having climbed into the Southern League, financial difficulties forced a drop back into the Eastern Counties League before the merger with Sudbury Wanderers.

Whilst the Town star was waning that of the Wanderers had been in the ascendant. From their formation in 1958 they had climbed through the local Halstead League, the Essex and Suffolk Border League and then the First and Premier Divisions of the Eastern Counties League. On the way they were three times finalists in the Suffolk Senior Cup at Portman Road, winning the trophy in 1991-92. In the F.A. Vase the club twice reached the last eight and once the last sixteen. The Jewson League Cup was won in 1999, defeating Felixstowe Port and Town 7-2 at Woodbridge. The current home of AFC Sudbury, the Wardale Williams Stadium, was that of the Wanderers with Town’s former Priory Road ground sold for housing.

As the newly amalgamated club AFC Sudbury proved a powerhouse in the Eastern Counties League winning the competition for five years on the spin. In addition, they reached the final of the FA Vase for three consecutive years from 2003 to 2005 but each time they return home disappointed after defeats to Brigg Town, Winchester City and Didcot Town. Accepting promotion to the Ryman League in 2006, it came as little surprise that they were regularly among the frontrunners but success remained tantalising out of reach. The playoffs were reached at the first attempt only for a penalty shootout in the final to be their undoing. The following season, penalties did for AFC in the Ryman League Cup final whilst they exited the playoffs at the semi-final stage. A lull set in at the Wardale Williams as managers came and went but in 2015 joy at last returned. With a new 3G pitch installed at the club for the start of the last campaign, AFC were never out of the top six from the first whistle though it was a tough scrap at the top of the North Division with the likes of Thurrock, Harlow Town and Cray Wanderers at the thick of it. With four games left AFC travelled to Tilbury knowing that a point would be enough to lift the silverware. In the end they claimed all three thanks to leading goal scorer Craig Parker, who fired in the game’s only goal in the 41st minute, going on to finish the season with 105 points nine clear of second placed Thurrock.

Summer saw just one departure from the Wardale Williams with manager Jamie Godbold confirming the retention of the bulk of last season’s championship winning squad. In addition, Godbold brought in teenage goalkeeper Callum Robinson following his release by Sky Bet League Two outfit Colchester United and former Brentford midfielder Aaron Greene. The latter player made his mark in preseason bagging a brace in a 4-0 win away to Heybridge Swifts, a victory that rounded off a busy schedule and included some goal laden encounters, an Ipswich XI beaten 5-4 and six goals put past Newmarket Town in another game of nine goals.

This weekend’s match kicks off at 3.00 pm and takes place at The Wardale Williams Stadium, Brundon Lane, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 1XR. Directions can be found on the AFC Sudbury website by clicking here

Admission prices are

Adult: £10
Concessions: £7 (over 65 years of age or in full time education)
Under 18: £2