Many thanks to all of the club sponsors for supporting last season. The coming season holds much in store for players and fans alike - good luck and thanks to everyone who helps to keep the club running. Please click on a sponsor to visit their web site.

The History of Buckland Athletic Football Club

The club was formed in 1977 purely as a junior club. We started life in the Torbay Pioneer League and Sandringham Park was our home pitch. As a junior club it was the biggest in the area, running a total of six sides in six different age groups for several seasons. We won many titles over the years including the Devon Youth Cup.

In the season of 1987-88 we were accepted into the Devon and Exeter League and started our senior football life in Senior Division Three playing home games at Coach Road with Roy Holmes still in charge. In our first season we won the Championship and were promoted into Senior Two in 1988-89. Well in the 1989-90 season we gained promotion once more into Senior One these two promotions were gained with a very youthful side. In 1990-91 we were on the move again this time to Decoy and this season saw us win the Wheaton Trophy. We finally achieved our dream of being promoted in the Premier Division in 1992-93, having now moved to our present ground at Homers Lane and the club hasn't looked back since this move took place.

In 1994-95 season saw Roy Holmes step down as first team manager and Nigel Holmes and Roger Madge top the job on. This was the season we won our first Premier Division Championship, a crowning glory to our rise up through the divisions in what seemed to be double quick time. The following season saw us pick up the East Devon Cup after beating our biggest rivals Exeter Civil Service. Nigel and Roger both stepped down as managers in 1998-99 season and were replaced by Shaun Bartlett and in his first season we retained the Premier Division Cup defeating Seaton Town 2-1. In 1999-2000 Shaun was joined by Phil Bayliss as his assistant and this was to prove our year when we won the Premier Championship for a second time a realized a club dream of being promoted to the Westward Developments Devon League. We only lost three games this season winning the title by 14 points scoring 108 whilst only conceding 16 in 18 league games a record to be proud of. Now in our first season in the Devon League Shaun stepped down at the start of the season and Phil was joined by Gary Taylor as his assistant, we have now been knocked out of the Devon Premier Cup at the semi-final stage and we finished runners-up in the league, we also picked up the Sportsmanship Cup and Programme Award.

2001-2002 was great season for the club as the Reserves went through the season undefeated in the Devon and Exeter Senior Division Two and were promoted to Senior One. The first team ended the season in sixth place in the league table and were beaten finalists in the Throgmorton Cup. 2002-2003 was another successful season in the life of Buckland, the Reserves won the Devon FA Senior Cup at Coach Road, beating Princess Yachts International 3-0. They were also promoted to the Premier Division of the Devon and Exeter League after finishing in third place, that was only decided on their last game of the season when the top three sides were all in with a chance of securing the title. The First team finished up third in the table which at the start of the season was, as many supporters said beyond them but the managers got good players in at the right times through the season. We also won the Devon League programme award and finished 29th out of a total of 1100 non league programme in the renowned Wirral awards.

2003-2004 was a new era in the club’s history, a third senior side was established and went on to win The South Devon League Division Seven Championship with ease. The First team finished in eighth place, with Gary Taylor stepping down from his assistant manager position, their lowest position since joining the Devon League. The Reserves finished in fourth spot in The Devon and Exeter premier Division, Manager Simon Glanfield stood down as manager. Theprogramme finished first in the Devon League section of the Wirral programme awards and 11th out of 1100 non-league programmes. 2004-05 we did better than the previous season by finishing in 7th place. Throughout this season the new ground was being worked on by a loyal band of club people.

In the final year of the Wirral programme awards we finished in our highest position of sixth out of 1100, winners were Exeter City. For the 2005-06 season we started life playing our games at our new permanent home, Homers Heath on the Kingskerswell Road. The move went very well, and the ground was opened on Saturday 13th July when an estimated 300 + people turned out to see Steve Perryman cut the ribbon to open the pitch. Plymouth Argyle bringing a team up on Wednesday 13th July followed this up. And Argyle Chairman Mr Stapleton officially opened the clubhouse. Paul Feasby and Andy Paddon were in charge of the First team and we finished in our lowest league position of 13th. In the 2006-07 season all the talk was about the re-structuring of the Devon League and South Western League. One League with three Divisions was being formed called the South West Peninsula League. We managed to finish the season in 12th place under the leadership of Phil Bayliss and Gary Taylor and we had done just enough to meet our goal of qualifying for the SWPL Premier Division along side the topsides in both the South Western and Devon Leagues.

The 2007-08 season was an extremely successful one for the club, the first team finished in 14th place in the new South West Peninsula League Premier Division. We won the SWPL Premier Division best ground award, which is voted by the other clubs visits to Homers Heath throughout, we also won the SWPL Programme award. The Reserves won the South Devon League Division 4 title, were runners-up in the prestigious Herald Cup, Devon Intermediate Cup Winners and Divisional Cup winners. The 3rd Team won the SDL Division 6 title, the Fred Hewings Cup and their Divisional Cup Final.

In the 2008-09 season, the club enjoyed another successful season, the 1st team finished the season in 3rd place in the SWPL premier Division, and for the second season running we won both the ground and programme award for the Premier division. The 2nd Team had a highly succesful season, winning the South Devon League Division Two title and getting promoted to Division One, they aklso won the Devon Senior Cup with a 1-0 win over Lifton at Coach Road, this for teh second time in the club's history. However, 2nd Team manager Ian Miller decided it was time to step down and concentrate on his now role as the clubs commercial agent having enjoyed huge success with the 2nd Team. The 3rd finished in second placed in the SDL Division Five and gained promotion to Division Four. Our Under 14 side also were very succesful, winning their league title and league cup and winning the Devon FA County Cup at Cioach Road with a fine 4-1 win over Plymouth Kolts. The club continue's to thrive both on and off the field of the play and this is due to the hard working ethics of all the volunteers within the club.