Full name | Bath City Football Club | ||
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Nickname(s) | The Romans | ||
Founded | 1889 | (as Bath AFC)||
Ground | Twerton Park | ||
Capacity | 8,840 (1,006 seated)[1] | ||
Owner | Bath City Supporters' Society | ||
Chairman | Nick Blofeld | ||
Manager | Jerry Gill | ||
League | National League South | ||
2022–23 | National League South, 11th of 24 | ||
Website | Club website | ||
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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]