Paulton Rovers

Paulton Rovers Football Club is an English football club based at the Athletic Field on Winterfield Road in the growing village of Paulton near Bristol. They were established in 1881 and currently play in the Southern Football League Division One West. The club is affiliated to the Somerset County FA.

History

Paulton Rovers their first played competitive football in the Western Football League, which they joined in 1900 until 1904 rejoined 1905 to 1924 then 1925 to 1926 and again in 1929.

After World War II, Rovers were placed in the top division of what was now a two-division league but were relegated to Division Two in 1953. In 1960 Division Two was scrapped and for the next fourteen years the team played in the Somerset County Football League, but they eventually rejoined the Western League in 1974. When the league expanded back to two divisions in 1976 they were placed in the Premier Division but were relegated in 1981, only to bounce back three years later. A series of strong finishes in the late 1990s and early 2000s eventually saw them promoted to the Southern League in 2004 in the Division One South and West. After finishing fourth in 2013/14 they won a play off semi final at Tiverton Town 3–1 and then surprised Merthyr Town in front of a 2,201 crowd who had been unbeaten on their own ground in the league by winning 2–0 and gaining promotion to the Southern League Premier Division.

Paulton Rovers had reached the Division One South and West play-off semi-finals in 2006–07 losing 1–4 at home to Taunton Town and in 2012–13 losing 4–2 after extra time to Hungerford Town.

Having defeated Chippenham Town 3–0 at home in the 4th qualifying round of the 2009–10 FA Cup, Paulton were drawn at home against League One team Norwich City, which was televised on ITV1, making it Paulton's first live televised football match. They lost the match 7–0. The official match attendance was 2,070.

Their most successful manager to that date, Andy Jones resigned in February 2011 and assis