Gloucestershire FA chairman Roy Schafer admits he fears for the future of more semi-professional clubs in the area following the sudden withdrawal of Bitton AFC as a once-thriving Toolstation Western League competitor.
While defender Stuart Tovey spoke of his own “shock” at the 130-year-old club’s decision to pull out of the Step 5/6 league having signed for them only five days prior from Bristol Manor Farm, Schafer was reflecting on “tough times” across the non-League board, not just at Bitton’s famous Recreation Ground.
Bitton chairman John Langdon announced via a social media statement last Friday that the first team he has long devoted himself to, time-wise and financially, had been voluntarily removed from the Western League, having been rooted to bottom spot with one win and four points from 13 games at the time of the eyebrow-raising declaration.
“It is always disappointing when a team has to withdraw from a league; and it is particularly sad given the history of Bitton Football Club,” he said.
“Unfortunately, there are many clubs who have not recovered well following the pandemic; and given that the Premier Division of the Western League covers parts of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, this has heightened the problem because of the cost of coach hire.
“Coupled with players’ wage demands, it has made life very difficult for clubs like Bitton to cope. When the National League System was reorganised, it left clubs in the Western League with additional costs, and there was no money set aside to compensate for this.
“There are other clubs in a similar position; so it would not surprise me if others followed suit. It can sometimes be down to the fan base of a club and, given the proximity of other clubs in an area, it (a fan base) is not always sufficient for clubs to compete in an effective way.
“The Gloucestershire Football Association will continue to support Bitton, and we hope that they will be able to regroup and come back into football albeit at a lower level.”
Langdon, who will continue to oversee senior reserve team affairs in Bristol and District Four, a women’s section and junior sides at Bitton, referred to “long and arduous journeys” in his statement, backing his assertion up in an interview with the Non-League Paper in which he blamed the National League System for the way it “went about restructuring the leagues.”
Langdon estimates that Bitton's travel bill has increased by £8,000 in the wake of the 2021 decision, claiming that completing the season had proved “one step too far for the club,” and that it was “absolutely ridiculous” that they could get to Leeds and back faster than they could to and from Cornish-based Mousehole for games.
First-team captain Charlie Hitchings took to social media to express his frustration that players didn't find out about the news until it was posted for them to read on WhatsApp. “As players, we deserved a meeting,” he said.
Bitton’s demise, 25 years after their Western League arrival isn’t perhaps, so surprising given the way first-team fortunes have plummeted since the second half of last season.
In an article with the Bristol Post in February, long-serving manager and loyal clubman, Dan Langdon revealed after seeing their promotion hopes go up in smoke: “Now we’re where we are, we’ve taken a decision as a club to take a different approach, one based on trying to push more youngsters through, which inevitably means the dynamics of the squad between now and the end of the season will change.
“A total rebuild is needed and we’re making everyone, not least our supporters, aware that things are likely to become more challenging before they get better again," Langdon said.
Bitton are by no means the only Western League club to scale back their operations. In 2016, Winterbourne United resigned from the Premier Division citing serious financial pressures and these days ply their trade in the Bristol Premier Combination.
Gillingham Town withdrew their own competitive first team the following season and had been competing in the Dorset Premier League before returning to Western League action as a Division One club last season.
In more recent times, Odd Down and Brislington took opportunities to cut travelling costs by voluntarily demoting themselves to the Toolstation League’s more localised second tier.
Whether Bitton, who have long made no secret of their yearning to become a Southern League force, re-emerge as a Toolstation Division One competitor next season, or from further down the non-League chain as Winterbourne and Gillingham did, remains to be seen. League secretary Andy Radford was unavailable to comment.
Meanwhile, 36-year-old right-back Stuart Tovey was swiftly back as player-coach with Southern League Bristol Manor Farm just days after signing as a player for ailing Bitton.
He explained: “I signed for Bitton Friday before last and ended up playing 90 minutes at home against Falmouth in the league the next day and again on the Tuesday night at Longwell Green in the Les Phillips Cup.
“It was such a strange thing because Wayne Thorne, the new Bitton manager who I’d played under at Larkhall several years back, had asked me to lend my experience to them as he had a ‘project’ on his hands at Bitton, that they were ambitious to make another push for the Southern League.
“It was a tough decision to make to go there as I’d loved it at Manor Farm. But Wayne’s thinking sounded good, and I saw it as an opportunity, with (manager) Lee Lashenko’s blessing at Manor Farm, to get another good season or two out on the pitch before hanging up my boots.
“Last Wednesday tea time Wayne contacted me to say he was extremely sorry because the chairman of Bitton had been in touch to say he was pulling us out of the league. I couldn’t believe it, and I don’t think Wayne could either. The same applied to all the lads in our WhatsApp group.
“As far as I can tell, there have been no issues relating to players not being paid up, and that the decision to pull Bitton from the league was purely a financial one, largely due to the enormous cost of travelling to the likes of Devon and Cornwall for games.
“That, in turn, has probably had a knock-on effect when it comes to attracting quality players who simply don’t want to be spending so much of their weekends and midweeks on the road.”
Bitton’s former goalkeeper John Rendell, now managing Paulton in Southern League One South, said: “It’s such a shame what’s happened there. I was at Bitton for six years and we smashed it under Blackie’s (Andy Black) leadership around 2008 and 2009 time when we won a Toolstation Premier title, a couple of GFA Challenge Cups and a Les Phillips Cup with quality players like Michael Meaker and captain Danny Hallett in the ranks.
“It was just a shame the decision was taken by the club then not to go up to the Southern League on the back of that league title success, as there were players there more than capable of holding their own at the higher level.
“I have a good relationship with their chairman then and now, John Langdon, and feel he always makes the right decisions for Bitton.
“When you look at the horrendous amount of travelling clubs in that league have to do, and the huge costs that go with it, it’s small wonder some, like them, are struggling.”
Another Bitton performer around that successful period, George Boon, these days leading near neighbours Cadbury Heath in the Toolstation Prem with a home clash against Clevedon Town to prepare on Saturday, said: “It’s really sad what’s happened there. We tend to play Bitton on Boxing Days and at Easter and they’re proper local derbies.
“I don’t know too much about the reasons behind them withdrawing, but I do know that all the travelling and costs that go with it are not helping anyone.
“It means players either ask for silly money because they know they’ll be expected to travel long distances for games, or they’ll drop down a division where the travelling demands aren’t anything like so great. I do feel for Bitton and their people and I hope they bounce back next season, wherever it may be.”
