Season 1965/66 was the start of a new era for the football club, its first as Banbury United after the name change from Banbury Spencer and a new Board of Directors representing local businesses keen to bring a higher grade of football in the form of the Southern League, rather than the West Midlands League in which the club were this season competing.

Long serving Spencer player Tom McGarrity was the manager as the season began. Here is a recently discovered pre-season team photo for 1965/66, albeit it does not include several players who would by the time the season proper started would be at the club and go on to be regulars that season such as Roger Darvell, Alan Fullwood, Jim Cassidy, Roy Proverbs, Ron Goodison and Peter Slade.

The players in the team photo are:

Back Row (Left to Right): Gary Brown, Barry Samson, Paddy Page, Pete Svenson, Ernie Barnes (Trainer), J. Fowler (Treasurer), L. Hicks (Secretary), Paul Woodfield, Brian Jenkins, Tony Cooper, Dave McArthur.

Front Row (Left to Right): Tony Jacques, R. Stevens, Mick Arnold, J. Trindle, Bill Mooney (Assistant Manager), Bobbie Wickett, Dave Chatterton, Colin Johnson.

The club Directors in the middle row left to right are G. Smith, H. Gilkes, F. Timms, C. Kyme, H. Price, J. Rogers, G. Piggott, T. Lynott, S. Gillett.
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After just six league games of that season, with United having gained just one win and two draws from those games, Tommy McGarrity resigned. He stated that having promised at the start of the season that United would get to the top of the league he felt he had no option but to do so. The club appointed Bill Mooney as caretaker manager whilst the task of finding a new permanent manager got under way. Mooney had come to Spencer in the summer of 1963 having previously played for Nuneaton Borough, Rugby Town and Atherstone Town. He was Spencer captain for season 1964/65 and had become United’s Assistant Manager at the time of McGarrity’s resignation.

Finally, at the beginning of December 1965 it was announced in the local press that ex England International Len Goulden had been appointed manager of Banbury United and would take up the position on 1st January. Bill Mooney’s period of caretakership had though been very successful with United winning nine, drawing one and losing just two of the 12 league games played in this period. This had put United back up towards the top end of the table and raised hopes that under Goulden’s stewardship the club might do well enough by the end of the season to be elected to the Southern League something the club’s Directors badly wanted.

Len was one of the great soccer artists of the 1930s and 1940s. Playing as a scheming inside left he was the brains of the England attack between 1937 and 1939 during which time he gained 14 International caps. He had made 239 league appearances for West Ham scoring 54 goals prior to the Second World War. He was transferred to Chelsea in August 1945 and made 99 Football League appearances for them between 1946/47 and 1949/50 finding the back of the net 17 times. After retiring as a player in 1950, Len had two years coaching at Chelsea before moving to manage Watford for four years. After a spell in business and part-time coaching he had been over to Libya as their National Soccer Coach and had only recently returned to the UK.

There follows an article on Len’s appointment.
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Len took over from caretaker Bill Mooney with the club in a reasonably good league position with 23 points from 18 games (two points for a win in those days). However, any hopes that the club would immediately push on and make a serious challenge for the title were dashed as United failed to win any of Len’s first four games in charge. The club then though went on an amazing run of results which saw them lose just one more league game all season and finish in third place in the table just one point behind second placed Walsall Reserves, albeit 10 points behind champions Tamworth.

The United Board of Directors had applied for membership of the Southern League for season 1966/67. It was hoped that the third place finish in the West Midlands League combined with off the field improvements and plans would perhaps be enough to see the club elected at the League’s AGM. Len Goulden himself made an impassioned plea on behalf of the club for election at the meeting and there is no doubt his standing in the game helped to get the club the necessary votes to be successfully elected.

There follows an article about United’s successful election to the Southern League and a photo of Toko Green, who had played for Banbury Spencer in their first season of competitive football back in 1933/34 in the Banbury Division of the Oxfordshire Junior League, looking at a notice placed in a local newsagent on the day United were elected.
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Though Len had done so much to get United elected to the Southern League and the club were in early April of 1967 around mid-table in their first season of Southern League First Division football, the club Directors would at that point unceremoniously sack him after a 5-0 home defeat to Margate, seemingly rather harsh as the Kent side would earn promotion to the Premier Division that season by finishing First Division runners-up.