SASFC Club History
In 2023, St Albans Shirley FC celebrated it's Golden Anniversary
Founded in 1973 by Gavin McPherson, SASFC has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Fifty years on, we look to consolidate our position amongst the top Junior clubs in the country.
St Albans Park was established as a recreation ground in 1902, following months of deliberation and consultation with local clergy and landowners, in order to provide playground space for local youth. However it was to be another 70 years before organised football activities were formalised into a functional football club at the park.
It’s fair to say football in New Zealand has had its ups and downs over the years. It’s also true to say the success of our football club has been very much tied to the fortunes of the national game in New Zealand.
A hundred years ago, football (then known as 'soccer' in New Zealand) was as popular as cricket and rugby, but slowly lost ground to rugby as the national sport. Right up until in the 1970s, when our club was founded, and womens football, which had been banned since 1921, was suddenly revived, with organised football for the youngest players in the game becoming something local football clubs took a much bigger interest in.
Up until 1973, if you lived around here, you travelled to Linwood Park for training and weekend games. You would play for Rangers AFC – what would eventually become Coastal Spirit – and made the journey there at least twice a week. Even if you were lucky enough to own a car, 1973 was also the year that petrol prices went through the roof, because of a war in the Middle East. Families in New Zealand started to look closer to home for sports for themselves and their kids.
During the early 1970s St Albans resident, influential businessman and Rangers AFC life-member Gavin McPherson had been looking for a decent training ground for young footballers like his son that didn't involve travelling out to Rangers' home grounds in Linwood. He eventually succeeded in leveraging his position as vice-president of the Canterbury Junior Soccer Association to secure St Albans Park for the purpose. Perhaps sensing an opportunity to establish a new club in his area, he began to look for coaches and found a good number of Senior players living locally, keen to help out.
A member of St Albans Shirley Workingmens Club, Gavin adopted the clubrooms for his new sporting entity and naturally lent its name to the St Albans Shirley Working Mens Club Junior Soccer Section, which was eventually (and thankfully) shortened to St Albans Shirley Football Club. Young players were already using St Albans Park for after-school kickabouts; Senior teams were recruited, and the new club enjoyed modest success in the various regional competitions. One of those, the annual Gavin Roberts 12th Grade Boys (and now Girls) Tournament was co-founded by Gavin McPherson, also in 1973, along with Jimmy Lang of the Marlborough Junior Football Association and of course Gavin Roberts himself, and still takes place in Blenheim every September.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Senior players largely looked after themselves, but Junior footballers need structured programmes, in a controlled, fun environment, in order to sustain regular involvement in the sport. One of the Seniors, local baker Martin Sheenan (of Kidd's Cakes and Bakery fame) recognised this and began running weekend training sessions for primary school kids. It was primarily Martin's commitment to the Junior game that sustained SASFC through the challenges faced by organised football in the following two decades, and formed the foundation of a strong and enduring commitment to Junior football in the city that ultimately led to SASFC as we know it today.
New Zealand qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1982, marking a real high point for football in New Zealand. By then, SASFC had developed successful Youth teams and enjoyed sustained involvement in Senior competition. But a combination of bad organisation at a national level, lack of money and TV coverage – and the continued success of the All Blacks – saw the game begin to decline in popularity again, especially among young players, over the ensuing two decades. By the late 90s, SASFC had all but lost its Senior and Youth presence.
However, by the turn of the millennium Martin had 12 teams of 8th Graders playing every Saturday morning in our own in-house 5-a-side competition, at a time when players that age were expected to play 11v11 on a full size pitch! We still have the tee shirts he had printed up in the different team colours, with the Kidd’s logo on the front. The small-sided game went on to be adopted by New Zealand Football as the gold standard for Junior football development and remains the club's primary training activity among 8-12 year-olds today.
The strength of our Junior football is still the club’s biggest asset and it will continue to be at the heart of everything we do. A steady growth in local community engagement is driving new initiatives, fundraising and support. Our Youth and Seniors numbers have grown again beyond the peaks of the 1980s. It’s maybe no coincidence the national game is thriving once again – with the FIFA Women’s World Cup recently taking place in NZ – inspiring a whole new generation of young footballers just as the club is in the strongest position it has ever been.
But it’s thanks to the energy and determination of people like Gavin and Martin – and dedication of our current General Manager Matt Holmes – that SAS has not only survived these ups and downs, it has been able to go from strength to strength and become what we believe is the best Junior football club in the Mainland Football region.
On our 50th anniversary, we stand proud to be members of St Albans Shirley Football Club with the renewed passion, community and commitment to the game that we hope will sustain us through the next half-century and beyond.
Mick Stephenson
SASFC Communications Officer
August 2023
