WHITEHAWK

Whitehawk Fc In The Last Three Decades

The club gained its first club house in September 1980, using what was originally a prefabricated building that had been a temporary bank in Haywards Heath. This structure was replaced on the same footprint by a brick clubhouse that still stands today. Again, all the work was done by volunteers. A perimeter fence was added to the ground in 1981 and under new manager Sammy Donnelly, the Hawks won promotion from County League Division 2 as champions.

They entered the FA Cup for the first time in the 1982–83 season but lost 5–2 at Dartford in their first match. In 1983–84 Whitehawk won Sussex County League Division One for the third time, winning their last 18 games of the season, as well as enjoying a good run in the FA Vase before losing 1-0 at Corinthian Casuals in the fourth round.

1986–87 saw the Hawks finish as runners-up to Arundel. Youth team player Ian Chapman was signed by Brighton & Hove Albion and became their youngest ever player when he made his first team debut in 1987. Chapman went on to play over 300 league games for the Albion and Gillingham, the record for league games by any former Hawk.

In 1988–89, again under manager Sammy Donnelly, Whitehawk had what was at the time their best run in the FA Cup, going out 2-0 in a fourth qualifying round replay to Bognor Regis Town, having previously drawn 2–2 at Nyewood Lane. Former Brighton & Hove Albion winger Gerry Fell scored the second equaliser in the away game with virtually the last kick of the match after coming off the bench. Mark Dunk scored the Hawks’ opener.

The home attendance record of 2,100 at the Enclosed Ground for the replay stood for 27 years and was only bettered in 2015 for the FA Cup 2ndround replay with Dagenham and Redbridge.

Floodlights were erected in 1988 and were first used in a match organised to mark the occasion against then First Division Luton Town on 21 March 1988. The game finished 22. Luton sent their first team down for the game, less than a week before they met Arsenal in the League Cup Final at Wembley, thanks to the link the Hawks had with the old Albion player Steve Foster.

The Hawks won the Sussex RUR Cup for the third time in 1990–91, beating Peacehaven & Telscombe in the final 2–1, with youth player Darren Freeman, later to become our most successful ever manager, heading the winner.

1993–94 was another good season for the club, finishing once again as runners-up, this time to Wick, as well as having at the time our best ever run in the FA Vase, reaching the fifth round before losing 3-2 at home to Boston Town.

In 2006–07 the Hawks reached the quarterfinal of the FA Vase, losing 1-0 at home to the eventual winners Truro City in front of a crowd of 1,009. Under Russell Bromage in 2007-08, the Hawks once more finished runners up in the league.

The club finally achieved the league title success that had previously eluded them, winning the County League in 2009–10 under Darren Freeman, to gain promotion to the Isthmian League Division One South.

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