Much loved Sunday League club with over 30K followers to join Saturday football pyramid

Much loved Sunday League club Caversham United, with over 30K social media followers, say they are to join the Saturday football pyramid.

Caversham United are a grassroots football club based in Reading, Berkshire, with their first team playing in Reading Sunday Division Two, and finished the 2023/24 season in 6th place, a reserves team who also finished 6th in Division Four. They also have a women’s side in the sixth tier nationally, in the Southern Regional Division 1 North.

They were founded under current ownership in June 2015, having previously been known as AFC Palmer. And previous entities of the club include RBC Unison, FC Brettle and Miah’s. This is all history now and prior to the current ownership, with no links.

PROJECT LUXOR:

The clue is in the name. 📈

Update to follow at 20:00. 🕗 pic.twitter.com/vvlfkesaKm

— Caversham United FC (@CavershamUnited) May 30, 2024

📈⚽️ WE ARE EVOLVING! ⚽️📈 pic.twitter.com/o7DUOqtTIi

— Caversham United FC (@CavershamUnited) May 30, 2024

⚠️ BREAKING NEWS ⚠️

For the first time in our history, Caversham United Football Club will field a SATURDAY team in the 2024-25 season! 🔥

Our journey up the English football pyramid has begun. 📈

Interested in being part of it, either on or off the pitch? Our DMs are open. 📥 pic.twitter.com/RLXWSXtrNX

— Caversham United FC (@CavershamUnited) May 30, 2024

Thank you for your kind comments & interest in our journey into the Saturday football pyramid! 📈

Further points:

🏆 League place TBC – we’ll share once confirmed

⚽️ The Saturday side is in addition to our 2 Sunday teams

💻 Reaching @FootballManager is our first target!

🐐

— Caversham United FC (@CavershamUnited) May 31, 2024

We decided to find out more behind this, with Caverhsam United getting back in touch to say: “The decision behind forming a Saturday team has been one we’ve considered for a couple of years now. We really love Sunday League football, and in fact started Sunday League Day (@SundayLeagueDay) this year! However, whilst Sunday’s remain dear in our hearts, it’s time to grow the Caversham United brand and set roots at the very bottom of the English football pyramid.

“From the 2024-25 season, we will field a men’s Saturday side, playing its matches on a Saturday afternoon. We have a provisional league place, subject to the clubs approving our entry at the AGM in June. These are very exciting times!

“We expect that launching a Saturday team will foster more interest in the club as a whole, subsequently benefitting ours Sunday and Women’s teams respectively. With a social media following of circa 30,000 across the platforms, it’s time to use that popularity to build a team that we hope will grow and progress in the coming years.

“Our aspirations for the new team are simple: to find our feet in our new Saturday league, to become stable in it and then push on towards promotion and silverware. Until the league confirm our entry, we don’t know what division we will be in or the structure of the league, so setting a more specific aim is tough right now.

“Our immediate tasks include recruiting a playing squad, manager and a coach. We’ve made progress in some of these but it’s very early doors! If anyone reading this article is interested in our new venture, please do contact @cavershamunited!

“Other than recruitment, the next few weeks will see us lock in some sponsors and begin to prepare for the 2024-25 season with pre-season training and friendlies alike!”

Where do they get their nickname ‘The Goats’ from? They launched a campaign through Twitter in 2018, with The Billy Goats (now The Goats to incorporate all our teams), decided by the Twitter public.

The current club crest and kit was also chosen by their followers, while Caversham’s annual #CavUtdKitCompetition prove popular with designers allowed to create a new kit, send it through, and have it voted on.

Caversham’s club ethos has three parts:

– To champion grassroots football

– To promote women’s football

– To support charitable and worthy causes (£15,000 raisers for charity since 2019).

Amateur football done differently. #WeAreUnited

They also recently had former Premier League and EFL footballer Dave Kitson play for them!

This how fans reacted on social media as the much loved Sunday League club with over 30K followers reveal they are to join Saturday football pyramid…

@mattitude_29: 🐐 Super excited about this news that Caversham United will be joining the Non League ‘Pyramid’ from next season. Love their social media presence and how they use it. Would love to see them make Step 6 one day… 🤩

@blufferfish089: Perfect timing for my first uni year at Reading!

@charlesstallard: Congratulations 🎊 👏🏻

@Callum_StazZa: Premier League in 20 years

@Chewhouse: It was only a matter of time, congratulations!

@samuel_palmer_: About time guys 😁

@SmithStephenP: Great news guys.

@claredoc76: This is great news 👌

@wsavage_dcfc: Get in 🎉🎉

@ZiggySmith6684: Huge news great stuff

Jason Lee: looking forward to this, about time they were in the saturday league system, cracking club crest, great team, beautiful kits, time to smash it on the pitch, wish caversham all the best going forward, will be quite the challenge especially with how many struggle in non league these days