Bath City F.C.

Bath City
Bath City logo
Full nameBath City Football Club
Nickname(s)The Romans
Founded1889 (1889) (as Bath AFC)
GroundTwerton Park
Capacity8,840 (1,006 seated)[1]
OwnerBath City Supporters' Society
ChairmanNick Blofeld
ManagerJerry Gill
LeagueNational League South
2022–23National League South, 11th of 24
WebsiteClub website
Current season

Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Twerton, Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. Nicknamed the "Romans", the club was founded in 1889 as Bath AFC, and changed its name to Bath City in 1905. The team have played their home matches at Twerton Park since 1932.

The club spent the first three years of its history in the early 1890s as Bath association football club. The club was heavily discussed for entry into the Football League Third Division during the 1930s,[2][3] though Bath has missed out on election to the Football League on multiple occasions, including 1935, 1978 and 1985.[4] Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, the club won the Football League North. Bath have reached the third round of the FA Cup six times, beating league sides such as; Crystal Palace (in 1931), Millwall (in 1959), and Cardiff City (in 1992).[5]

The club were crowned Southern League champions in 1960 and 1978; one of the highest levels of non-League football at the time. After a period of relative decline in the 1990s whilst in the Conference, Bath were demoted to the seventh tier in 2004, the lowest level the club has ever played at. They were promoted in 2007, and then again in 2010, and played in the Conference for the first time since 1997, though the club were relegated in 2012 and have played in the National League South since.[5]

The club holds no real fierce rivalries, albeit the fixtures with the most animosity are the local derbies shared with fellow Somerset club, Yeovil Town and more recently with Wiltshire club, Chippenham Town.[6][7] The club's nickname stems from Bath's ancient Roman history.[8] The first recorded attire the club wore was blue shorts and white shirts in 1900, though the club changed to black and white stripes in the early 20th Century and the colours have remained since. The club's crest depicts the Borough walls, which in-circled the old city centre during medieval times. Twerton Park once held up to 20,000 fans, with the club's record attendance of 18,020 being recorded in 1960, but the Taylor Report in the late 1980s and the subsequent modernisation of football stadiums has more than halved that figure.[9][10]

  1. ^ "Everything you need to know: Twerton Park". Bristol City F.C. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Bath City and Third League". Bath Chronicle. 22 February 1936. p. 16. Retrieved 26 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "Bath City's Bid for Third Division". Bath Chronicle. 6 April 1935. p. 16. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Bath City's hopes dashed". Bath Chronicle. 8 June 1935. p. 16. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ a b "Bath City Archive". Bath City Archive. Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  6. ^ "Rivals have a lot of cup history between them". Bath Chronicle. Retrieved 27 October 2023 – via PressReader.
  7. ^ "The Next Match – The A4 Derby Part II – Chippenham Town Home". Bath City FC. 1 January 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  8. ^ Marcussen, Wanda. "The Roman Baths in Bath- A Deep Dive into Britain's Ancient History". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  9. ^ Gibson, Owen (12 April 2009). "Out of the ashes of Hillsborough, modern football was born". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  10. ^ "All-seated football stadia". Sports Grounds Safety Authority. Retrieved 27 September 2023.