Bath City

Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. Nicknamed the “Romans” the club were founded in 1889 as Bath AFC, and changed names to Bath City in 1905. The club have played their home matches at Twerton Park since 1932.

The club spent the first three years of its history in the early 1890s as Bath association football club. Bath City won the Southern League Western Section in 1930, and again in 1933, which was viewed as the second best competition in England at the time, or the 4th tier. The club was heavily discussed for entry into the Football League Third Division during the 1930s, though Bath has missed out on election to the Football League on multiple occasions, including 1935, 1978 and in 1985.

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, the club won the Football League North – making them the only non-League football club to have ever won an English Football League trophy. Bath have reached the third round of the FA Cup six times, beating league sides such as; Crystal Palace (in 1931), Millwall (in 1959), and Cardiff City (in 1992). The club were crowned Southern League champions in 1960 and 1978; the top tier of non-League football at the time. After a period of relative decline in the 1990s, Bath were demoted to the seventh tier in 2004, the lowest tier the club has ever been in. Albeit, they were promoted in 2007, and again in 2010, and played tier five football for the first time since 1997, though the club were relegated in 2012 and have played in the National League South since.

Their main rivalries are with fellow Somerset club Yeovil Town and Wiltshire club, Chippenham Town. The club’s nickname stems from Bath's ancient Roman history. The first recorded attire the club wore was blue shorts and white shirts in 1900, though the club changed to black and white stripes in the early 20th Century and the colours have remained since. The club's crest depicts the Borough walls, which guarded the city during Roman times. Twerton Park; once held up to 20,000 fans but the Taylor Report in the late 1980s and the subsequent modernisation of football stadiums has more than halved that figure.