We were delighted to be given recently a letter handwritten in June 1966 by then Banbury United manager Len Goulden, inviting local lad Cyril Green down to the club for a trial. We are grateful to Trish for donating this and some other items to the club which she found at Cyril’s sister’s house.

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 had been competing.

Long serving Spencer player Tom McGarrity was the manager as the season began. However, 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, he had been McGarrity’s Assistant.

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.

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, at the time of his appointment as manager of Banbury United, recently returned to the UK.

Here is an article on Len’s appointment from the local press:

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 planned off the field improvements 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.

Len in his time at Banbury United:

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!

Cyril Green, who Len wrote to inviting him down for a trial, must have impressed as he was soon playing for United. A left winger Cyril made his first team debut in a Southern League game at Barry Town on Monday 26th September 1966. It was though in his third first team game for the club on Saturday 8th October of that year that he scored his first goal for the club, not only that but he went on to score two more that afternoon to notch a hat-trick, though his personal triumph was probably slightly soured as United would remarkably lose the game 4-3 to Crawley Town! A photo of Cyril scoring the third of his goals in that game appears below.

Cyril went on to score 12 goals in season 1966/67 from 36 first team appearances which was followed the next season with 20 appearances, scoring three goals, and then 18 in season 1968/69, again scoring three goals.

After leaving the club Cyril played locally and was a referee in local football for a number of seasons. He was also very well known as a cricketer for his village side Byfield. A brilliant left handed batsman, who could have played at a far higher level had he chosen to do so. He played for well over 40 seasons for the club.

Cyril as a referee:

The club were delighted that Cyril was well enough to attend our first ever former players’ day in January 2016 when we played Larkhall Athletic. The photo below was taken as he walked down the pitch that afternoon, being introduced to appreciative on-looking United supporters.

Cyril passed away in October 2018. Len passed away in February 1995.