The Southern League (Part 3) 1988-1995

Despite suffering relegation, the club embarked upon a period of spending record amounts on transfers, with around £20k on just 4 players. Despite that and a large restructuring of the playing  personnel, the team managed just a mid-table finish in its first season back in the Southern League Premier Division.

Managers Tony Jennings and then Alan Gane did not last long in the hot seat so that by the middle of the 1990/91 season ex-double winning boss, Brian Hall, was brought back to the club.

The 1990/91 season was the last the club was to spend at its Lower Mead home. After 71 years the site was sold off for re-development as a Tesco supermarket. The club moved into ground share Watford’s Vicarage Road and £3.5m handed to the property developers to find a site on which to build a new ground.  Unfortunately the money disappeared overnight which left the club in severe financial difficulties that would stretch ahead for some 20 years.

The club continued to spend large amounts of money on players it could ill afford. By the end of the 1991/92 season, the club had been placed in administration; the team had been relegated again, this time to the Southern League Division 1 South and manager Brian Hall’s contract terminated.

The club’s position was now so serious that in the match day programme for the home game against Ashford Town on 31st October 1992, then Chairman David Pollock, warned in his programme notes that that particular match might involve a team that would be the last to be seen in a Wealdstone shirt.

With the club’s finances in such dire straits, the decision was taken to relocate the club from Vicarage Road to Yeading.  Ex-double winning playing hero Dennis Byatt was appointed the new manager. Following the team registering 6 defeats in its first 6 matches, manager Byatt was sacked and ex-Fulham professional and Woking manager, Fred Callaghan, was appointed in his place.

The new manager appeared to use the 1993/94 season as a long set of auditions for players with a total of 63 being fielded.  The team won just 6 matches, finishing second from bottom of the league. Had Canterbury City and Dunstable not taken voluntary relegation from the division, the club would have suffered relegation into the Combined Counties League. In playing terms this was undoubtedly the club’s lowest point in modern times.

In Fred Callaghan’s second season in charge some highly experienced and talented forwards were recruited, most notably, Simon Quail, Roddy Brathwaite and ex-Woking FA Cup hero, Tim Buzaglo. As a result, the team rattled in 76 goals.  Unfortunately little attention was given to defence and 94 goals were conceded.

Tim Buzaglo will always be famous for the hat trick he scored for Woking in a 4-2 F A Cup 3rd round victory a West Bromwich Albion in 1991. After signing for Wealdstone in 1994, Tim’s 16 goal haul from 25 games included a remarkable 9 game run in which he scored in every match.

The club spent 3 seasons in the Southern League Premier Division before suffering a further relegation. During those 3 seasons it played 168 matches, winning 61, drawing 34 and losing 73, in the process scoring 224 goals and conceding 234.

The 2 seasons the club competed in the Southern League Division 1 South, it played 126 matches winning 37, drawing 22 and losing 67, in the process scoring 196 and conceding 258 goals.

Over the 7 seasons the club competed in the Southern League between 1988 and 1995:

Author: Mick Fishman

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