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Club
History Maidenhead entered the Southern League in 1894 but competing with the likes of Watford, Brentford, Fulham and Brighton proved too demanding and eventually dropped into the West Berkshire League, which they won, and the Berks & Bucks League, in which they finished bottom ! In 1904 Maidenhead joined the Great Western Suburban League. Maidenhead
Norfolkians, meanwhile, were founded in 1884 and were successful
members of the South Bucks & East Berks League before
also joining the West Berks League and the Berks & Bucks
League. In 1904 they joined Maidenhead FC in the Great Western
Suburban League. After the Great War the two clubs amalgamated and had immediate success winning the Great Western League. In 1920 the name "United" was adopted and two years later they entered the Spartan League. They won the title three times in their nineteen year stay. In 1936 Maidenhead reached the semi-final of the FA Amateur Cup losing 4-1 to Ilford at West Ham in front of 18,000 spectators. It was that year the ground record attendance of 7,989 was set when Southall came to York Road in the quarter-final. In the 1929-30 season the club's goal-scoring record for a season was set when Jack Palethorpe scored 65 goals in 39 games. He went on to play for Sheffield Wednesday and scored in the Owls FA Cup win in 1935. Following
the end of the Second World War the club entered the Corinthian
League. In six seasons between 1956 and 1962 the club won
the title three times, were runners-up twice and also reached
the 3rd Round of the FA Amateur Cup, losing to West Auckland
at York Road in front of a post-war record attendance of
5,597. They also made three appearances in the First Round
Proper of the FA Cup. Following
the departure of Spong to Enfield, Gary Goodwin, then John
Clements and then John Watt took on the manager's job with
mediocre results, the club regularly finishing mid-table. So, in the Summer of 1996, in an attempt to break that run of mediocrity, the Club hired a new management team of Martyn Busby, the former QPR and Notts County midfielder and Alan Devonshire the former West Ham and England midfielder. Although Busby left midway through the season, Devonshire guided United to their first Cup success since 1970 by winning the Isthmian League Full Members Cup. The 1997-98 season saw the Club have one of their most successful campaigns since Corinthian days. They won all three County Cups, beating Reading 2-1 in the Senior Final, reached the semi-final of the Full Members Cup and captured the Isthmian Fair Play Award. The season was nearly rounded off with promotion, but the Club finished fourth and an agonising one point behind Hampton despite clocking up 81 points. More silverware was won the following season, when the Magpies strolled home 4-1 against Wycombe Wanderers to retain the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup. The Millennium season saw United make a solid start to the League campaign, losing just one of their opening eleven games – and that on the opening day. By late March the Club remained in the promotion hunt with just five League defeats and a place in the Isthmian League Cup Final to look forward to at the end of the season. A late season rally followed a short, jittery, slump in results. The club took its place in the Premier Division on Thursday May 4th following a 1-0 home win over champions Croydon just days after losing 1-0 to Farnborough Town in the Final of the Isthmian League Cup at Basingstoke. Life in the Premier Division was tough to begin with but spirits were lifted by a memorable FA Trophy run which came to an end at Blyth Spartans. A good late run eased the Magpies well clear of relegation – at no point in the season, strangely, were they ever in the bottom three. A new 700 capacity enclosure was completed in May 2001 which increased York Road capacity to 4,500 and covered terracing for 1,700. The York Road ground, though, has long been the target for developers being a town centre site only 30 miles from London, making it one of the most desirable pieces of real estate in England! But United’s move to a new stadium has always faltered due to a lack of available sites in an area locked in by green belt. United continued to consolidate their place in the top division in the last two years of Devonshire’s reign, winning the County cup in both seasons New Beginnings… At the start of the 2002-03 season Chairman Roger Coombs announced he would step down at the end of that season. In April 2003 Manager Alan Devonshire stated his intention to leave the club after the final match of the season. The summer of 2003 naturally then saw a hive of activity at York Road with new manager John Dreyer and Assistant Manager Phil Gray having to bring in virtually a new squad. Off the field new Chairman Jon Swan was busy organising the redevelopment of the Magpies Social Club into Stripes bar. The summer also saw the return of the youth team managed by Steve Beard and they proved to be an instant hit by winning the Allied Counties League East Division at the first attempt. The 2003-04 season, unsurprisingly saw a shaky start and after seven games the Magpies found themselves bottom of the league and winless. However a run of seven wins in nine games saw United shoot up the table and gave themselves a platform to secure a top half finish which guaranteed Nationwide South football, the highest level the club have played at since the Southern League days in the late 19th century. Away from the League, John Dreyer made his mark on the club’s history by leading the Magpies to the quarter finals of the FA Trophy, beating Conference full timers Halifax Town on the way. The Magpies struggled to adjust to life in the Nationwide South and following a slide into the bottom three in November, the club parted company with Dreyer and Gray. In December a new management team arrived from Windsor consisting of Dennis Greene and Colin Ferguson but despite a significant improvement in results United could not break clear of the relegation struggle. On the last day of the season a defeat in a relegation shootout at Newport combined with a win for fellow strugglers Carshalton sent the Magpies down. However within a fortnight of the final whistle Maidenhead were reprieved following the demise of Hornchurch. Following a disastrous start to last season Greene was sacked after seven games and replaced by Alan Devonshire’s former assistant Carl Taylor. Taylor and his assistant Tony Choules were no more successful than their predecessor in maintaining Nationwide South status and so the club have returned to the Southern League after an absence of over a century. Another consequence of the struggle to retain Nationwide South status has been mounting debts and as 2005 drew to a close a financial crisis loomed. This was swiftly resolved when the members voted to wind up the existing club and transfer ownership to a new Limited Company set up by sponsors Pharmalink. A 5-0 thrashing by bottom club Clevedon, compounded by a mediocre start to the current season led to manager Carl Taylor leaving the club in September. Johnson Hippolyte, known as "Drax", was appointed as Taylor's replacement and had immediate success leading the club to their first FA Cup First Round proper appearance in 35 years. Progress in the Southern League took a little longer but an amazing run of 12 wins from the final 14 games saw the Magpies finish fourth and qualify for the play offs. The winning run then continued in the semi final at Kings Lynn and onto promotion by beating league runners up Team Bath 1-0 to return to the Conference South a year after relegation. |
