History
The Boatmen have a long, but fragmented history, running teams from the Woolston Works as early as 1884.
In March 1887 they were finalists in the first Portsmouth Challenge Cup, beaten 1-0 by Portsmouth Association Club. The Club were only beaten twice in 16 games that year (goal tally 72-6) and won the last Hants & Dorset Challenge Cup before those Associations split.
Re-forming after World War 1 as Thornycrofts (Woolston), they were admitted into the Hampshire County League from 1919 to 1926. In 1920 Thornycrofts reached the FA Cup First Round proper (pictured below), meeting First Division giants Burnley at Fratton Park, and held them to a 0-0 draw in front of over 10,000 spectators, before losing 5-0 in the replay, three days later. Burnley were Football League runners-up that season before winning the Title the following year.
After World War 2, Thornycrofts Woolston re-formed in 1947 but could only keep going until 1952.
The Club were re-formed as VOSPER THORNYCROFT FC in 1960 and joined the Southampton Junior League.
After many successful years in the Southampton Leagues, where the club won 6 Championships overseen by Arthur Fox, Trevor Lewis & Bill Boyle, Vospers were promoted to the Hampshire League Division 3 in 1991. The following season they were promoted to Division 2. 1997/98 saw Vospers as Hampshire Intermediate Cup Winners.
In the 1999/00 season, Dave Diaper & Mick Brown were appointed as the management team.
In the 2001/02 season, Vospers won the Southampton Senior Cup at St Mary’s Stadium.
In 2002/03, Vospers were re-named to VTFC (after the parent company) and were runners-up in the Southampton Senior Cup.
The 2003/4 season saw a double winning season for VTFC, as Hampshire Premier League Champions & Southampton Senior Cup Winners and gained promotion to the Wessex League for the first time.
In 2005/06, VTFC again won the Southampton Senior Cup
In 2006/07 VTFC finished in third place and won the Southampton Senior Cup yet again. The Club’s 4th victory in 6 years.
In 2007/08 they were runners-up in the Wessex Premier League and continued their dominance in the Southampton Senior Cup, winning it for the third consecutive year.
In the 2008/09 season, the club gained promotion to Step 4 for the first time by finishing as Wessex League Premier runners-up, while also winning the Wessex League Cup with a 2-1 victory over Hamworthy United. The club also reached the final of the Hampshire Senior Cup, but were defeated 1-0 by Fleet Town.
The 2009/10 season was our first season in the Southern League South & West Division, where we finished a creditable 4th, reaching the play-offs, but were defeated by Bridgewater Town in the Semi-Final. We reached the final of the Red Insure League Cup but lost on penalties to Cambridge City. The Southampton Senior Cup was won again at St Mary’s, defeating Team Solent 2-0.
The club changed its name in July 2010 to SHOLING FC after the parent company, VT Group, were no longer in existance with the closure of the Woolston shipyard. We decided to reflect the name of the area of Southampton nearest the ground and adopted the Red & White stripes so associated with the City.
In the 2010/11 season, in our second season in the Southern League South & West, we finished 2nd, but agonisingly missed out on promotion in the playoff final, losing 1-0 to Frome.
In 2011/12, for the third season on the trot we reached the playoffs only to fall at the first hurdle to a 1-0 away defeat by Gosport.
2012/13 saw difficulty for the club, as we finished 7th in the Southern League South & West, but the club made the difficult decision to voluntarily drop out of the Southern League.
The 2013/14 season saw a strong return. Back in the Wessex League Premier Division, we weren’t defeated until February. Despite having to play 20 games in 30 days due to a bad winter, Sholing won the title with 104 points and a goal difference of +105. We also won the Southampton Senior Cup at St Mary’s.
Of course, the FA Vase win will be what most people will remember from this season. The greatest honour in the club’s history. Back in October as we squeaked past Winchester City in the 1st round, no one was dreaming of Wembley, but as the rounds were ticked off, we started to get the feeling that our name was on the Cup. So on the 10th May 2014 at the home of football, Wembley Stadium, backed by over 3,000 fans, Marvin Mclean scored the only goal in the 71st minute and Byron Mason & Dave Diaper lifted the Vase.
In a whirlwind of activity that followed, the team paraded the FA Vase in front of 30,000 Southampton FC fans at St Mary’s, were given an official reception by the Mayor of Southampton and appeared on both local TV stations.
In 2014/15 the season, we were granted promotion back into the Southern League South & West division, finishing in 17th. Ground grading issues saw Sholing relegated back to the Wessex League.
In 2015/16, Sholing finished runners-up in the Wessex Premier League.
The 2016/17 season saw more Sholing success, as the Boatmen achieved 2 Cup Wins in the space of 3 days at the end of the season. Firstly winning the Wessex League Cup with a 2-1 win over Baffins Milton Rovers, then defeating Team Solent 3-1 at St Mary’s Stadium to lift the Southampton Senior Cup for a record 8th time. Sholing finished 3rd in the Wessex Premier.
At the end of the season, it was announced that Budweiser had selected Sholing to receive a £100,000 grant towards improving facilties. The club appeared on European-wide Budweiser TV adverts.
Finally, in 2018/19, Sholing were crowned Wessex League Champions with 8 games remaining in a season where Dave Diaper surpassed 1000 games in charge. The Boatmen finished with a record title-winning margin of 31 points and also the Wessex record for points per game (2.763). The club also won the Russell Cotes Cup for the first time. Dan Mason scored an incredible 64 goals in all competitions this season as the club gained promotion into the Southern League South Division One.
In the 2019/20 season, the Boatmen climbed from the bottom 3 to 10th place and were looking good for a possible late run for the play-offs, before the season was sadly halted by the Coronavirus outbreak. Sholing created club history by reaching the First round proper of the FA Trophy for the first time.
In 2020/21, after decades of trying, the club finally built a new changing room building. In what must be a first for the Boatmen, we lifted silverware in October, winning & retaining the Russell Cotes Cup, which was held over from the previous cancelled season. More history was made in the FA Cup when the club reached the 4th Qualifying Round for the first time where we were narrowly defeated by Torquay United. The season was curtailed and no further games were played.
The 2021/22 season saw the Boatmen starting the season well and staying in the top 6 until February, but finished 7th
We found ourselves promoted again in the 2022/23 season, as Sholing created history by gaining promotion to the Southern Premier South (Step 3) for the first time. After finishing the league campaign in 2nd place, the Boatmen firstly defeated Wimborne Town 2-1 in the playoff semi-final, before beating Hamworthy United 2-0 in the Final, in front of a club-record crowd of 1,300.
In the 2023/24 season, in our first-ever season in the Southern Premier South, we finished a creditable 15th after a rollercoaster season on and off the pitch. After 25 years in charge, Dave Diaper stepped down with Paul Doswell taking over. Despite some memorable big wins against local rivals, the Boatmen were sucked into a relegation scrap in the final month, but some big performances saw us safe. Since “Dos” and a new board of directors have arrived, a new 400 capacity stand was built and many improvements have been made to the clubhouse, hospitality & toilets, as well as a 100 space hardstanding car park.
