THE end of the 20th century didn’t give Crediton United much to celebrate and the recent poor run continued into the new decade.

Team manager, and subsequent Club Chairman, John Clarkson was confirmed as First team manager for the 1999 season with former player Robbie Vaughan as assistant. With Clarkson’s apparent vast experience as a professional footballer and good contacts, things promised some improvement.

But all did not go smoothly.

By the time of his departure from the Club early in 2002, Robbie Vaughan, Dave Harkness, Nigel Menhenick, Jock Brown and Nick Thomas had all come and gone as his managers and assistants.

In those three seasons United finished fourth, fifth, and third from bottom place positions.

Roy Walters, Graham Avery and Kevin O’Sullivan stepped in to see the club through a very difficult time and managed to preserve the Club’s place in the Devon League.

John Harkness and Robbie Vaughan took charge of the team in December 2002 and rescued the team from the re-election zone for the fourth year on the trot but with a drastic goal difference of 30 goals for, and 109 against, with a mere 26 points accumulated.

Dave Blanchford, who had been enjoying a couple of years break from football, following disagreements and managerial upsets, returned to the Club as Chairman and soon made his impact felt.

The new managers’ second season brought some hope, with a top half finish, bagging 57 points and a positive goal difference. Disappointingly they left at the end of the following season.

Exeter-based managers Tony Voysey and Matt Gould, who had had success for several years in the Devon and Exeter League with Dolphin United and St Loyes, were appointed and brought a lot of good players to the Club for the 2005-6 season, finishing in a satisfactory 12th position.

Voysey ran the team on his own for his second season, but was unable to repeat the success of his first season by finishing in a disappointing sixth from bottom spot.

The season’s end was marred by an unfortunate injury to a young Exeter City player in an end of season friendly match, resulting in a broken leg from an over zealous tackle by a Crediton player.

Sadly this proved to sour our relationship with City for many years to come. Happily however things do seem to have improved in the last year or so.

The 2006-07 season was the final of the, by then, Axworthys Devon League.

Football in the Westcountry was being overhauled by the Football Association, combining the Devon County League and the Cornwall-based South Western League.

Three Divisions were to be introduced – one Premier Division at NFL step six consisting of the top rated Cornish and Devon Clubs and two First Division step seven Leagues - one based in Cornwall and the other Devon.

This move also gave the member Clubs opportunities for enhanced grant funding from the Football Association for facility development and ground maintenance, with totals of £100,000 available for level six Premier Clubs in any 20 years’ period and £10,000 for level seven First Division Clubs.

The selection of which level the Clubs could apply to join was decided by existing facilities and not previous league positions. Thanks to the development in the Western League days, Crediton United by now had acquired the necessary facilities to join the Step six level, but from a playing point it was decided the Club was not strong enough to compete and that the increased expenses of travel into deep Cornwall would be crippling financially. So the club asked to be placed in the South West Peninsula Division One East.

After a very difficult time in the first seven years of the 21st Century, in August 2007, the Club was preparing for yet another new adventure.

Chris Gillard