 | |||
| Full name | Cray Valley Paper Mills Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | The Millers | ||
| Founded | 1919 | ||
| Ground | Badgers Sports Ground,Eltham | ||
| Capacity | 1,550[1] | ||
| Chairman | David Carter | ||
| Manager | Steve McKimm | ||
| League | Isthmian League Premier Division | ||
| 2024–25 | Isthmian League Premier Division, 4th of 22 | ||
Cray Valley Paper Mills Football Club is afootball club currently based inEltham, in theRoyal Borough of Greenwich,England. They are currently members of theIsthmian League Premier Division and play at the Badgers Sports Ground.
The club was established in 1919 and joined Division Two of the new Sidcup & Kent League.[2] Playing in green and white, the colours of the mill's vehicles, their first match was played on 20 September 1919, a 1–0 win against Hamilton House.[2] The club won the division at the first attempt, earning promotion to Division One of the Bromley & District League.[2] In their second season they won the Kent Junior Cup.[2] They later joined theKent County Amateur League, winning Division Three of the western section in 1932–33 and finishing as runners-up in the division in 1936–37.[2] The club left the league at the end of the 1954–55 season.[3]
Cray Valley joined theSouth London Alliance in 1975.[2] They were Division One champions in 1979–80 and won the Premier Division two seasons later.[4] The club won Division One again in 1983–84, and finished as runners-up in the Premier Division in 1988–89.[4] In 1991 they joined Division One of theSpartan League.[5] When it merged with theSouth Midlands League to form theSpartan South Midlands League in 1997, the club were placed in Division One South. Despite finishing as runners-up in the league'sfirst season, they left to become founder members of the London Intermediate League.[5] However, in 2001 they left to rejoin the Kent County League, becoming members of Division One West.[5][6]
In 2002–03 Cray Valley won Division One West, earning promotion to the Premier Division.[5] Two seasons later they won the Premier Division.[5] After finishing third in 2010–11, they moved up to theKent League, which was renamed the Southern Counties East League in 2013.[5] When the league gained a second division in 2016, the club became members of the Premier Division.[5] In 2016–17 they won theLondon Senior Cup, beatingMetropolitan Police 2–1 in the final, becoming the lowest-ranked team to ever win the trophy.[7] They were also runners-up in the Kent Reliance Senior Trophy in the same season.[8] However they were disqualified from the first round of theFA Vase for fielding an ineligible player, former Crystal Palace defenderMatthew Parsons.[9] The club reached the London Senior Cup final again the following season, but lost 4–1 toBalham.[10]
The2018–19 season saw Cray Valley reach theFA Vase final for the first time,[11] in which they lost 3–1 after extra time toChertsey Town atWembley Stadium.[12] They were also Southern Counties East League Premier Division champions, earning promotion to the South East Division of theIsthmian League.[12] In2020–21 the club reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time, losing 1–0 atHavant & Waterlooville.[13] They reached the first round again in2023–24, when they were drawn away to local League One sideCharlton Athletic.[14] After a 1–1 draw atthe Valley,[15] they lost the replay 6–1.[16] The season also saw the club win theSouth East Division title, earning promotion to the Premier Division.[17]
In2024–25 Cray Valley finished fourth in the Premier Division, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which they lost 4–3 toDartford in the semi-finals.
The club originally played at the sports ground of the paper mills inSt Paul's Cray.[2] However, the mills closed in 1981 and the club then played at numerous grounds until moving permanently to the Badgers Sports Ground in Eltham in 1998.[2] The ground includes a 100-seat stand on one side of the pitch and a small covered area on the other.[18][2] In 2016Greenwich Borough agreed a 30-year lease to share the ground.[19][20] However, at the end of the 2018–19 season Greenwich Borough were evicted for failing to pay rent, and subsequently moved to the Phoenix Sports Ground inBarnehurst.[21]
51°27′2″N0°2′5″E / 51.45056°N 0.03472°E /51.45056; 0.03472
