AFC Hayes as they have been named since the start of the 07/08 season were formed as Brook House in 1974. They were named after a Pub of the same name and first competing for glory in the Hayes and District Sunday League Division 7.
In 1982 the club relocated to its current home starting to play Saturday football in the South West Middlesex League and becoming founder members of the Middlesex County League in 1984. Well travelled League player (ex Chelsea, Wimbledon, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace amongst many clubs) Neil Shipperley played for Brook House before his league career started. He has now come full circle back to the non-league game manging near-by Bedfont in the Combined Counties League.
The Brook play in the Zamaretto Division One (South and West) which is the same level as Town. They face some lengthy trips in this league to Hampshire and Somerset despite being only 10 miles away from Slough Town who have been moved to the Zameretto midland division this year. They are somewhat unlucky not to be placed in Town's division as they are only 5 miles away from Hillingdon Borough's Middlesex Stadium who were in the Ryman last year.
Having said all this they do face some local derby matches this year against Bedfont Green, Uxbridge and Windsor & Eton.
Last year the club coped well with all the travelling and finished a respectable 9th of 22 winning 18 of 42 matches. They are managed by Dale Welch.
AFC Hayes qualified for the Shield by winning the Middlesex Senior Cup last season by beating Ryman Premier Hendon 2-0 in the final.
Town qualify by winning the 07/08 delayed Middlesx Charity Cup on 12/08/2008 when we beat Hillingdon 4-1 in front of 138 spectators. The Charity Cup wasn't played in the 08/09 season due to the bad weather and so many postponements causing fixture backlog.
AFC were beaten by Royston Town 3-1 at home in the FA CUP 1st Qualifying round last year but have reached the 2nd QR on one occasion in 05/06 when they drew local rivals Hayes drawing 0-0 away and loosing 0-4 at home in the replay. There best FA Cup performance was in 1995 when in the 1st QR they went to Conference Stevenage Borough and drew 0-0. The replay was lost 1-4 in at match played at The Warren, Yeading.
Town's last game against AFC Hayes was at Goldsdown Road in the FA Cup 1st QR on 01/09/2007 when in front on 209 people thanks to a Ricci Crace Brace Town won 2-1.
AFC were the last winners of the Ryman League Associate Members Trophy in 05/06 beating Hertford Town 3-1.
Their pre-season results are as follows:
09/07 Staines Town (HOME) - W 4-0
11/07 Harrow Boro (HOME) - L 0-1
25/07 Wealdstone (HOME) - L 0-3
01/08 Leighton Town (AWAY) - Result not known
03/08 Chesham United (AWAY) - Result not known
AFC Kick off the season proper on 15th August with a trip to South Gloucestershire to play Yate Town. They then have two home games V Hungerford Town and Cinderford Town.
They have a trip to the seaside to look forward to in the FA Cup travelling to the South coast to play Folkestone Invicta.
TCE wishes AFC the best of luck for the season for a club has come a long way since competing in the inaugural Middlesex County League in 1984 against some well named teams such as Technicolor Sports, Kenbro All Stars, Torchbearers and Pitshanger Dynamo to name a few.
The shield has been played since 1999 and has been won by Hampton&Richmond twice, Hayes (2), Hendon (2) and Harrow Borough once. The only time a team not beginning with H has won the competition was in 2003 when Feltham defeated Hendon 6-5 on pens after 0-0 draw.
Town have competed in one final in 2002 loosing 1-0 to Hendon. This is AFC's debut in the competition. Kick off is at 7.45pm.
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