Manor Seniors History

After playing for Somersall and Manor Rangers Juniors for a number of years in the Sheffield and District Junior League (from under 10 to under 16) a number of the 16 year olds agreed to "give it a go" in an adult league and therefore joined the Chesterfield and District Sunday League in Division 9 for the 1996/97 season.

Initially the team was called Somersall Rangers Reserves (as an adult team already existed in the League under the name of Somersall Rangers) and was managed by Mark Jarvis who had been the manager of the Manor Rangers Under 16s team.

In the first season playing in an adult league the team finished a creditable 3rd and was duly promoted to Division 7 for the 1997/98 season.

For the next 3 seasons the team struggled a little in Division 7 finishing 8th, 7th and 9th respectively. Then in the 2000/01 season (when the majority of the lads were just out of their teens) the team finished as champions of Division 7 and were promoted to Division 4 for the start of the 2001/02 season.

Yet again the team had a very successful season finishing champions of Division 4 and being promoted to Division 2 for the 2002/03 season.

At this point the team changed its name to Manor Rangers as we found ourselves in the same division as Somersall Rangers and the League insisted in a name change to avoid any confusion. By the end of the 2002/03 season the team had finished in 3rd place and was promoted (for the 3rd successive season) into Division 1.

Our first season in the top flight was a bit of a struggle, although we only lost the majority of our games by the odd goal. By the end of the 2003/04 season we were in 9th place (3rd from bottom) and the league decided we should be relegated for the first time in an adult league.

At this point Mark Jarvis decided to step down as manager and let someone else have a go. Max Bailey took over as manager and Phil Ward took over the secretary role (Mark had previously performed both roles for many years). The 2004/05 season proved another successful season, finishing in 3rd place in Division 2 and being duly re-promoted to Division 1 again for the start of the 2005/06 season.

Our second spell in the top flight proved just as disappointing as the first and by the end of the 2005/06 season we finished bottom of the league and were relegated again to Division 2 for the start of the 2006/07 season. Our one claim to fame during the 2005/06 season was a 3-2 home win to the Division 1 League Champions, Shirebrook Northern, which was their only defeat during the whole of their league campaign.

With the resignation of our manager, Max Bailey , our 2006/07 campaign in Division 2 , with player/manager, Scott Timbrell now in charge, got off to a disappointing start and by the turn of the year we had only amassed 7 points, but a stronger 2^nd half to the season , when we picked up a further 15 points, enabled the team to finish the season mid table with 22 points (and a negative goal difference of 7) and thus avoided relegation.

The 2007/08 season proved to be very problematic, with one two or three long-serving team members including our player/manager and our goalkeeper deciding to quit football for personal reasons during the year. The team battled on with a weakened squad of players with other senior players taking on the role of joint manager. On more than one occasion during the season the team had considered withdrawing from the league because the team were unable to field 11 players and on one occasion the Team  Secretary, 57 year old Phil Ward had to don a football shirt and be on the field of play at the kick off time or the match would have been unable to start as the team only had 8 regular squad members available. The Team Secretary didn’t stay on the pitch very long as he suddenly acquired an mystery injury which allowed him to resume his more regular role of linesman. The 8 players eventually lost the game 9-2, but what made it more bitter was that our opponents were our local rivals, Somersall Rangers.  The team eventually completed the season and finished next to bottom with 21 points, of which 15 points were gained in the 2^nd half of the season. Normally relegation would follow such a poor season, but a plea to the league and the imminent return of the regular goalkeeper as player/manager for season 2008/09 enabled the team to remain in Division 2.