CLUB HISTORY:

Founded: 1972
Nickname: The Heartlanders

The club was originally founded in 1972 as Nuneaton Amateurs when a dispute at the well-known Co-op Sports F.C. lead to many members moving to the Nuneaton Griff and Coton Miners Welfare Ground. Nine players and officials paid £1 each to start the new club and former Rugby Town, Lockheed Leamington and Bedworth Town player Colin Wetton became the first manager with Colin Rathbone as Chairman and Derek Brown, Treasurer.

Defeating Jet Blades 2-1 away in their first-ever game, the Amateurs were denied a championship success in their first season when opponents did not turn up for a late-season replayed game and the Coventry and North Warwickshire League decided there was not time to fit in another match. In the Birmingham Junior Cup there were two notable scalps as Kingswinford and Solihull Borough were defeated and the Amateurs finished a fine season by annexing the Coventry Telegraph Cup.

The club was accepted into the Coventry and Alliance Suburban League Premier Two and a another superb season saw them promoted into the top Division where they more than held their own and Derek Brown gained representative honours for the League side. May 1975 saw the end of the Colin Wetton era but the now Nuneaton Griff went on to gain many honours until there followed a bleak spell of fortune leading to relegation. During the mid 1980s the present Chairman, John Gore took charge of team affairs. He was successful in arresting the slide and turning Griff into a powerful Coventry Alliance outfit. On retiring in 1996 he made the best decision in the clubs history, persuading the then 34 year-old Mark Green to come out of retirement.

Green totally transformed the club as Nuneaton Griff FC swept all before them in the Coventry Alliance, just as he had done previously with his former club Arley WMC FC. In 1998-99 the decision was made to apply for membership of the Midland Football Combination.

The club was placed controversially in the Premier Division but the Heartlanders, under manager Mark Green, repaid that faith by winning the Championship in their initial season and then made it a double the following season 2000/2001 and also added the Endsleigh Challenge Cup for good measure. In the process they made history by winning the latter at Villa Park and the following night annexing the Coventry Telegraph Cup at Highfield Road, Coventry to become the only club to play two finals on consecutive days on two different Premiership grounds and win both times.

Since then the club has consolidated in the Premier Division and enjoyed a period of growth on and off the field. A series of managers have come and gone and most have left their mark as the club has given many local players from the successful youth section their first steps on the football ladder. In recent years the Farmer family has been a tower of strength with Steve being manager for four seasons from 2007 and then elder brother John took over in 2011. After stepping down two seasons later he returned at the beginning of the 2016-17 season following the one season tenure of Charlie Reardon during which the club reached the last eight in the F.A. Vase and set a new record crowd for the Pingles Stadium of 870! As a purely amateur club Griff rely on local youngsters and John Farmer was the ideal man to have in charge but in September 2017 he stepped down and Courtney Belford was appointed in his place. A year later he in turn resigned and Brett Clark took over.

Clark resigned on Christmas Eve 2018 and former Rugby Town and Chasetown manager Dave Stringer was appointed in his place. Griff retained their place in Division One for season 2019-20 and local cousins and former players Adam and Iain Green were appointed as joint managers,

The cousins Green resigned in the summer of 2021 and former player Sam Belcher was appointed in their place.

In the 2021/22 season, after a difficult start, Belcher stabilised the club and then built a squad that went from strength to strength finishing in 8th place.

Nuneaton Griff FC

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