Bridgwater United Football Club, nicknamed “The Robins,” is a non-league football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset.
Established in 1984, they currently compete in the Jewson Western League Premier Division, which is part of the ninth tier of English football. The team calls Fairfax Park their home ground.
In a town long dominated by rugby, association football first took root in 1898 when a senior side was formed, won the Somerset Senior Cup in its first full season, then folded in 1902 amid financial difficulties. A successor appeared in 1904 at Westonzoyland Road but also closed before World War One. In 1919 factory workers founded Wills Athletic, which by 1921 had rebranded to represent the town, joined the Mid and West Somerset Senior Leagues, and moved to Chilton Park, only to drop to junior status and disappear by the mid-1930s. After the war a new side emerged from Crown Dynamos, shifted to Castlefield, entered the Western League, rose to Division One in 1951–52, and spent three decades in the top division, winning titles in 1967–68 and 1980–81.
Bridgwater Town AFC built a strong cup record: Somerset Professional Cup winners in 1959 (finalists in 1951, 1973, 1982) and Western League Cup winners in 1958 and 1974 (finalists in 1960). FA Cup highlights included the 1st round in 1960, 1963 and 1971, and the 2nd round in 1961, with notable ties against Oxford United, Crystal Palace, Luton Town and Reading. Trophy runs came in 1970 and 1973, alongside wins in the Alan Young and Pratten Cups. A 1982 move to the Southern League lifted gates but strained finances; mounting debts led to liquidation in 1983–84, the Castlefield ground was sold, and a final friendly was played against Bristol City in May 1984.
A supporter-formed club restarted at Fairfax Park, secured three Somerset County League titles and cups, and rejoined the Western League in 1994, taking the Division One title under Alan Hooker. Two Les Phillips Cups followed under Trevor Senior, plus an FA Vase run, before Craig Laird led runners-up in 2007 and a return to the Southern League. The team placed 6th (2008) and 7th (2009), lost the 2010 play-off final to Cirencester Town, and were 2009 Southern League Cup finalists. Back in the Toolstation League under Dave Pearse, they finished 8th then 4th, with Jack Taylor winning the Golden Boot (33 goals), before managerial changes, fixture congestion in 2012–13, a 2014–15 Somerset Premier Cup semi-final, subsequent relegation, and a 2019–20 promotion push curtailed by COVID-19.