The Great Eastern, Romford's Forgotten Football Club: The town's only senior club between the First World War and 1929

Following an acclaimed five-volume history of Romford Football Club, written with the late John Haley, Terry Felton now reveals the dramatic story of the Great Eastern FC. After ceasing to be a railway works team in 1922, the Eastern became Romford's town club by default. it won a host of trophies, including the Spartan League in 1926. A cup tie against Queens Park Rangers in October 1924 drew thousands of fans to its ground next to Romford Station. Yet by 1930 the glory days had vanished, with only a handful of supporters watching the last-ever match at the ground before it fell victim to the Romford Station redevelopment. Despite a move to a new sports ground at Loughton, the Great Eastern FC folded during the 1931-32 season.

Includes statistical information from over a thousand games. Results, goalscorers, league tables and season-by-season summaries.

We also discover:

The site of the Romford Station ground and what happened to it afterwards. Among the places to have stood on parts of the former ground since then are a coal yard, houses in Regarth Avenue, Hollywood's nightclub, a bus terminal and a supermarket. We follow a self-guided walk around the area today.

Biographies of the club's top players including Essex and London county representatives, railway internationals and an England amateur international. We also commemorate those players who died during the First World War or won medals for gallantry during the conflict

We trace the Romford FC connection, finding intriguing links between Great Eastern personnel and the men who re-formed Romford Football Club in 1929.