Rochester United

ROCHESTER UNITED

Ground Name and Directions

Rochester United – A History

Bly Spartans was formed in 1982 by Bernard Hurst and Dave Archer (now President and Life President respectively) joining the Sunday Medway Football League. There we played for 15 years before being promoted to the Senior Division.

In 1992/3 and 1993/4 we played in the All England Sunday FA Cup reaching the last 32 on the first attempt. In 1997, the club successfully applied to join the Rochester and District Football League Division One and the following season won the title and were promoted to the Premier Division. We were accepted into the Kent County Football League in 2000, being placed into Division Three West. After two successive promotions as runners-up, the club was in Division One West by 2003.

In the 2006–07 season we finished runners-up to Orpington and the following season, after being transferred to Division One East, we won the title as well as two cup competitions including the ‘Bill Manklow’ Inter-Regional Challenge Cup beating Bearsted in the final 2-1, and were promoted to the Premier Division.

The club achieved Chartered Status in 2009 and installed eight floodlight columns in 2010, leading to our successful application to become founder members of the Kent Invicta League, at level 10 of the English football league system for the first time. Bly had a very good season winning the league and the challenge cup. Further improvements followed, the clubhouse altered and the changing rooms improved, as well as a 200 seater stand erected and concrete footpath laid down one side of the pitch.

In 2012, we became the inaugural champions of the Kent Invicta League and gained promotion to the Kent Hurlimann League. In May 2012, we announced that we’d sought permission to rename ourselves Rochester United from the start of the 2012–13 season.

Rochester United started its first season in the Kent League very well, being in the top half of the table up till Christmas 2012, after Christmas a bad run of lost games followed, we ended the season finishing fifth from bottom. For the new 2013/14 season, the league changed its name to Southern Counties East Football League. During the closed season the club completed outstanding works and were given their ground grading so that in season 2014/2015 they were able to enter The FA Vase for the first time.

During the season commencing 2015/16, the club entered the FA Cup for the first time, going out of the competition against Herne Bay FC in the first qualifying round.

On the pitch we finished 20th in the SCEFL Premier Division for season 2017-18 and were relegated to the First Division. Another disappointing campaign resulted in a 17th placed finish the year after, before a much improved performance in 2019/20 with us looking good for promotion the following season until the coronavirus pandemic caused an early end to the football season.

Following the Covid disruption season Rochester United progression has continued with a 10th (2021/22), 6th (2022/23) and 4th (2023/24) place finish which culminated in a tight 0-1 loss in the play-offs ending a late promotion push.

2024/5 saw a spirited campaign, with victories over multiple step 5 clubs in the FA Vase and Challenge Cup before a late falloff in form and an unwelcome points deduction saw the club just missing out on the end of season play-offs (8th).

2025/26 Rochester United secured a Stadium naming and Shirt sponsorship deal that sees us now play at the Rochester Utilities Stadium with an exciting partnership and future ahead it’s an exciting time to be a Spartan!!

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