Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club

At the end of the Second World War, the residents of Forest Green formed a “Welcome Home” committee to ensure that all those who had fought for their Country were properly received and made to feel welcome after their experiences. Most of the gate money from the League games at the end of 1945 went to the Welcome Home Fund.

 

The committee were all long time Forest Green Rovers supporters and had enjoyed a prolonged period of success watching their team succeed on the pitch before the war. The team were on the verge of great things in 1939 and the War stopped them in their tracks.

 

In September 1946, Stan White formed the Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club. Instead of disbanding the Welcome Home Committee they became the nucleus of the new Supporters Club. Over the next ten years the Supporters Club raised sufficient funds and gave enough voluntary time to transform “The Lawn” into the premier non league ground in the County.

 

At the same time the Supporters Club guaranteed to make up the gate to ensure the financial stability of the Club from the base upwards.

 

By the mid 1960s the Supporters Club obtained planning permission and raised funds to build their own Social Club and, when it opened in 1970, it opened the door to a new level of funding and a move up the league pyramid became a real possibility. And in 1975 it became reality when Rovers moved into the Hellenic League and out of County League football for the first time.

 

The Supporters Club is still alive and kicking in the new era of Corporate Finance and plays a key role in supporting the Club both financially and in many other ways off the pitch. The volunteer members of the Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club follow in the footsteps of those who paved the way to what the Club is today.

 

With no Supporters Club it is almost certain we would still be playing village football today… Visits to Wembley would have been the stuff of pipe dreams rather than reality.

 

They rightly deserve legend status.