CLUB HISTORY

Sporting Devils Football Club was founded in September 2004 by players from the old FC Jiggle 5 aside team that had participated in the Crawley Fives since May 2001.

The name Sporting Devils was first proposed by Dave Carling in the Railway one night during summer 2004 and when, two months later the team decided the new name should bear a reference to the Crawley Town supporting tendencies of many of the squad the Devils part of Dave's suggestion was embraced. Sporting Devils won the vote from a shortlist of three to be the name of the new club.

Two successful years in the Fives from 2004-2006 set the foundations for the developments the club has seen since mid-2006. Between 2006 and 2009 the Fives team was joined for various lengths of time by SD Oblivion & Overload in the Sixes, Sporting Angels in the Ladies Fives, a Soccabox team and the Sporting Devils XI in the Crawley Saturday League. The long-running Crawley Fives ended in mid-2009 and from that summer Devils continued with two teams, the Thursday team in the Sixes and the Saturday 11 aside team. In December 2009 these were joined by a Monday team, to replace the old Fives team, playing in Football Mundial's new Monday Sixes. As of June 2010, Devils currently run these three teams. In addition to the club's teams, Devils became shirt sponsors for the West Green Primary School football team from 2005. 

The first Devils squad comprised Phil Laker, David Leake, Andy Lee Chong, Dave Carling, Phil Williamson, Sam Cohen and Chris King and competing in Autumn Fives 2004 the team enjoyed great and unexpected success. The new Devils team surpassed the previous records of the three years previous as FC Jiggle as they earned a record league finish of 3rd and qualified for Finals Night for the first time, reaching the semi-finals. Two more semi-finals were reached in the Fives in 2005 before Sam Cohen replaced Phil Laker as manager ahead of Winter 2006, the first season at the new K2.

By the summer of 2006 Sam had re-shaped the squad and with the additions of Davie Rae, Richie Rose and Peter Symons, Devils went from strength to strength, enjoying the club's best ever season in the Summer Fives and a campaign that remained the club's best performance in the Crawley Fives until 2009. On the back of one defeat in fourteen games Devils reached the Summer Fives Final, coming through four knockout rounds to meet Horley Town A in the year's Crawley Fives showpiece. Horley took the title on penalties after a 1-1 draw but Devils could be proud of a memorable season, capped by finishing runners-up in a field of 36 teams. At the summer day tournaments too it was a successful time, with quarter-finals reached at two of the three tournaments and a second team run for the first time at a day tournament at the Aero Technics Cup.

Early in Summer 2006 the club also re-launched its Soccabox team to coincide with the re-opening of Soccabox. This was the first of a wave of new teams created over the next two years. The Soccabox side kicked off that successful summer as they earned promotion from Division C at the first attempt and finished 3rd in Division B in the second, and final full season.

The success of the Soccabox and Fives teams had increased participation and support around the club and this inspired the entry of a second team in the Fives for the first time. Sporting Devils Evolution, led by John Connell played two seasons in the Fives, Autumn 2006 and Winter 2007, the high point of Evo's run being a Danny Tanner inspired penalty shoot-out win over The Boro in the knockouts of the Autumn Fives. December 2006 also saw the birth of Sporting Devils Oblivion, the club's first 6 aside team, competing in the Thursday night Football Mundial Sixes.

2007 picked up where 2006 left off with success on the pitch as the Devils Fives team won a league title for the first time, clinching League A in Winter 2007 courtesy of a late 1-0 win over Horley Town Casuals which saw Gilly's Heroes pipped for top spot. This season also saw Clare Heath's Sporting Angels competing in the one Ladies Fives held to date. Oblivion meanwhile completed their first season, snatching a season's high 4th spot in the final week.

In mid-2007 a second Thursday night side was formed as Sporting Devils Overload joined Oblivion in the Sixes. Both squads took a new look for a new season that saw the inaugural Devils derby when Oblivion and Overload met twice in the Championship. Oblivion won the two derby games before clinching promotion to the Premiership on the last day of the season. The next season, Oblivion's first in Football Mundial's top flight was the club's most successful in the Sixes till the team equalled the feat in Summer 2009. The squad now comprising Phil Laker, Stuart O'Leary, Peter Symons, Luis Florez, Mike Savigar, Alec Savigar and Dave Frampton put together a superb run of six wins and two draws from the final eight games to take 2nd place in the Premiership early in 2008, finishing just behind champions Onetouchables on goal difference. Overload competed for three season's, gaining a highest league finish of 3rd in the Championship in 2008.

Concurrently, 2007 saw the start of the Sporting Devils 11 aside section. The nine-month project from the initial idea proposed over the New Year to the first competitive match in September was the club's biggest project to date. Devils were formally accepted into the Crawley & District Football League in June 2007 and managed by Sam Cohen the club played its first league match in Division 2, against Pelham Wanderers on 1st September. The first win in 11 aside football came a week later, 5-0 against Sporting Crawley II. The XI won five times in the club's debut season, collecting 18 points and finishing 12th of 13 in Division 2. In May 2008 Dave Frampton was appointed manager ahead of the 2008/2009 season.

2007 was a big year in the club's growth as it also saw the staging of the first ever Sporting Devils Summer Cup at Northgate Playing Fields in May. Now held annually the Summer Cup is a one-day 5 a-side tournament open to all players involved with the club. The first tournament was won by Black Widows, comprising Phil Williamson, Peter Symons, Alex Harrison, Steve Pejda, Ruth Matthew and Caroline Jenn. The 2008 tournament was won by White Widows, comprising Phil Williamson, Sam Cohen, Andy Lee Chong, Carl Garner and Nick Eatwell. Williamson completed a hat-trick in 2009, winning with Men In Black alongside Ashley Iles, Carl Garner, Jonny Evans and Julian Calvert.

After winning a league title in early 2007, the Fives team had three successive 5th place finishes in the competitions leading into mid 2008. The first two were good seasons but the third (Winter 2008), coming a distant 5th, far removed from the Finals places in an eight team league was comfortably Devils poorest season in the Fives. The season saw a peak in the player availability difficulties that had steadily developed since mid 2007 and as Devils team differed greatly every week the team's fortunes reflected this. However in hindsight Winter 2008 was a watershed as in response Sam gave the squad a new look for the Summer Fives, bringing in Dave Frampton, Aaron Chenery, Przemek Zbikowski and towards the end of the summer Tom Clarke and Arran Brown. On paper Devils finished 7th in a 13 team league that summer but the performance, a point off Finals Night, was far better than that suggested and undoubtedly laid the foundations for the great season that followed over the Autumn/Winter months.

The summer of 2008 also saw preparations for Devils second season in the 11 aside Crawley & District League and the club was boosted by the introduction of PF Gatwick as first official sponsor for the Sporting Devils XI ahead of 2008/2009. The company's name and logo was displayed on both home and away shirts of the Devils XI for 2008/2009 and this relationship continued for 2009/2010, the club's third season. Also for 2008/2009 Devils appointed a new manager, Dave Frampton taking the reigns from Sam for the new campaign. Certainly, Dave inherited the toughest job possible as he inherited a squad that struggled in the latter half of the previous season and then lost key players in the first month of the new season. For the first two thirds of the season Devils were by far the weakest side in Division 2 but the final run-in offered brighter prospects with some good signings boosting the squad and performances steadily improved, culminating in a memorable first win in the 19th game of the season, 6-5 against Worth Park Rangers, clinched by Mike Roberts legendary last minute penalty save.

On the back of a positive Summer Fives, Devils entered the final competition of 2008, the Autumn Fives in good shape. The team made a flying start with wins over two of the tournament favourites, Alltraders and Real Apathetic in the opening fortnight and this set the tone for a close run league title race between Devils and Horley Town Casuals. After both sides won their first five games, Horley took the initiative by winning the first of the two games against Devils 1-0 in week six but Devils edged back in front over the run-in before a last night loss to Norfolk handed Horley the league win. However 2nd place plus Devils performance on Finals Night made it statistically the club's most successful in the Fives as the team defeated Creme Egg Casuals and Alltraders Reloaded to reach the Final for the second time, this time against Gilly's Heroes. Like in 2006 though there was a bitter sweet ending for Devils and this one was doubly agonising for Sam, who suffered a serious knee injury seven minutes into the game which was halted for half an hour awaiting an ambulance. Devils led 1-0 at the stoppage through Paul Plummer's goal but two Gilly's goals in the last five minutes on the resumption won them the Autumn Fives title, with Devils runners-up. Ultimately, this was Devils penultimate season in the Fives, ending with another good showing of 3rd in the league and a semi-final appearance in the Spring Fives. The Crawley Fives ended after a run of some 30 years after the following campaign, Summer 2009 in which Devils did not take part. 

While the Crawley Fives came to an end, Football Mundial's Thursday Sixes itself a long-running league with its origins at the old Leisure Centre, continued to go strong. From 2008 into the first part of 2009 Oblivion, now known by the club name Devils after Overload's withdrawal had built on the runners-up finish in the team's first season in the Premiership with two more solid finishes, 5th and 7th, leading into Summer 2009. Summer 2009 saw the Thursday team rediscover the defensive record that was the foundation for the previous 2nd place season as Devils kept an outstanding ten clean sheets in fourteen league matches. An impressive start was made with wins over Goaldenballs and Camelia Botnar and draws with SBA Elite and Goodnight Juice in the first four games before defeat to eventual champions Nunno's Allstars. A solid mid-season that included an important win over Horley Haemaphrodites and another draw with SBA kept Devils in the hunt before a strong run-in, culminating in back to back wins over Guinness Lightweights and Horley on the final night saw Devils edge out 3rd placed SBA to clinch runners-up honours for the second time. This has since been followed up with another strong season in Winter 2010 as Devils finished 3rd with a best to date eleven wins in the season.

For the Devils XI 2009/2010 saw Sam return as manager as Dave opted to revert to the role of Assistant and so Devils began the third season with the managerial line-up that began the first campaign in 2007. By way of coincidence the season began in the same way, with promise and three wins and two draws before Christmas that had Devils competing in mid-table by the time the weather brought about a two month winter break from late November to late January. The second-half of the campaign though saw a dramatic decline and Devils set a record losing run of twelve straight defeats in 2010 with no points gained since the turn of the year. The turnaround was demonstrated in the final weeks as Devils lost comfortably to the three sides that had been beaten before Christmas, ending in 6th place in Division 2, a point ahead of bottom of the table Wingspan II.

In May 2010 Lloyd Foreman was appointed manager for 2010/2011 and Devils will now look forward to a new start for the XI with new manager, new sponsor, new kit and a new league in September 2010 as the team makes the switch to the Mid-Sussex Football League.