Club History
Leiston Town Football Club was first affiliated with the Suffolk County FA in 1880 and at the time was closely associated with the Richard Garrett Engineering Works in Leiston. The club’s early years were spent in the North Suffolk League or Ipswich and District League. Leiston Town were ‘Full Members’ of the Football Association from the early 1950’s until 1982 following their relegation from the Senior Division (the only other Suffolk teams to be Full Members at this time were Ipswich Town and Lowestoft Town) and soon after this period the club dropped the Town part to become just Leiston FC. During this period Leiston were accepted and played in the FA Cup, FA Amateur Cup and later the FA Vase. The clubs Youth team were the first club in Suffolk to enter the FA Youth Challenge Cup reaching the First Round and a trip to Highbury to face Arsenal in 1954 where they took an early lead before losing 8-1 to the Gunners. In May the club regained its Full Member status of the FA, one of only four Suffolk clubs to hold this.
Season 2008/2009 will be long remembered in the history of Leiston as we became only one of three sides to ever reach the First Round proper of the FA Cup after starting the competition at the Extra Preliminary Round stage. Memorable wins at higher ranked Carshalton Athletic and Conference Premier Lewes in a run that lasted nine games and ended in a replay defeat at Conference North Fleetwood Town in front of 2000 fans after a record crowd of 1250 had watched the First Round goal less draw at Victory Road.
After ten seasons in the Eastern Counties League the club gained promotion to the Ryman League as champions of the Ridgeons League. The inaugural Ryman League season provided unexpected success and at the first attempt secured the Division One North title with some fantastic performances including a 26 game unbeaten run. In 2017-18 the club achieved its highest ever league position, 5th in the Ryman premier division under Glen Driver. They have continued to compete in step 3 football, albeit in a different league for the past two seasons.
A very youthful Reserve side has played some great football over the past couple of seasons and has seen several young players push into first team squads. Another recent addition is our third senior squad; our “A” team. Set up to help u18 players transition into senior football, this side gained promotion in the first season of the SIL into division 3 where they will play in the 2020-21 season. The club continues to engage youth development and the U18's had a fine season especially in the cup competitions and continues to progress while the introduction and links with Junior sides in the community will see the club evolve further for the future.

Over the years, Leiston have been blessed with many able and willing Chairmen, Secretaries and committee members and the club has prides itself on its family attitudes. The club has also been very fortunate over the years to have players of note in their ranks and includes many links with professional clubs including Ian Gillespie, Ted Phillips, Jackie Warne, Stuart Boardley, Byron Lawrence, and Jason Dozzell to name but a few. This has been added to in recent months by the appointment of Darren Eadie as joint manager with Chris Wigger. The 2020-21 season is looked forward to in much anticipation under their joint stewardship.

The club continues to improve its facilities in line with FA grading requirements and now has some of the best Non League facilities in Suffolk and the club is forever looking to improve. Recently the club gained FA Charter standard and regained full FA Membership, one of only 4 in Suffolk. The efforts of Chairman Andy Crisp and Vice Chairman Peter Mayhew have been the main driving factors behind the changes and the meteoric rise of the club to step three of the national pyramid.