HISTORY

Ashby Ivanhoe Football Club was founded in 1948 and play their home matches at the NFU Sports Ground, Lower Packington Road, Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire, which they moved to in 2012, and purchased in 2021. Before that, the club had played at Hood Park from when they were formed in 1948, until the end of the 2011/12 season.

The club currently consists of two adult teams, the first team are in step 5 of the United Counties League Premier Division North and our Knights are at step 6 in the Everards Brewery Senior League Premier Division.

Our youth system continues to thrive, we have forty teams playing in the 2023/24 season. We have two MJPL teams, six girls teams in the Leicestershire Women's and Girls Football League, nineteen boys teams in the Tamworth Junior League, eight boys teams in the Burton Junior Football League, four boys teams in the Derby City Football League and one boys team in the Leicestershire & District Mutual Football League this coming season. We also have our soccer school, aimed at three to six year old's, that regularly has twenty plus attendees and a development school that draws in similar numbers. The development school has been designed to aid players that have not had the opportunity or confidence to play in teams before. Rob Avins is our soccer school and development school coach and the work he does, along with his assistant Joe Poyser, is nothing short of amazing. Dozen's of players have been moved into teams due to the coaches and players dedicated work. A special mention must go to our head of boys youth football, Mark Scrivener and our head of girls football, Sade Palmer, who have both been amazing in helping us grow the youth section, thank you for all the work you are doing! We also need to thank David Hunt, who's soccer school in 2009/10 first started our junior section and Conrad Carrolan, our current first team assistant coach, who led an U18's floodlit team to a runner's up spot in 2021. After a few years away we look forward to competing in this competition again in the next couple of years!

In February 2004, Ashby Ivanhoe became an FA Charter Standard football club for the first time and the club is very ambitious and has plans to progress further up the league pyramid system. The club is run by an experienced management team and enjoys the support of some prestigious national commercial partners. 

Ashby Ivanhoe had one of their most successful seasons in 2010/11 as they completed a league and cup double by winning the Leicestershire Senior League by nine points and also lifted the Coalville Charity Cup for the very first time after producing a superb second half comeback to beat Bardon Hill 3-2 in the final. They have also reached successive Leicestershire Senior Cup finals in 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 but had to settle for runners-up on both occasions losing 3-1, firstly to Ibstock United and then Aylestone Park. 

The 2013/2014 season saw the first team achieve a long-term ambition as they won promotion into the Step 6 of the Pyramid system playing in the East Midlands Counties League for the 2014/2015 season after finishing third place in the Leicestershire Senior League. It was a close title race with the top three all finishing level on points with Ashby third on goal difference. The Reserves were also promoted to the Leicestershire Senior League Division One.

2014/2015 saw Ashby compete at Step 6 for the first time and they had a very good season and secured a top six finish in the East Midlands Counties League which featured victories against all of the sides above them. The Reserve side were involved in a tight title race and it went down to a last day decider against Lutterworth Athletic Reserves but despite the result going against them on the day they were still promoted for the second season in succession and will play at Step 7 in the Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division for 2015/2016. 

2015/2016 saw Ashby have another fine season and they mounted a strong title challenge and they led the East Midlands Counties League for the majority of the season before finally finishing in third place. That saw them assured of a first ever appearance in the FA Cup for the 2016/2017 season where the aim again will be to push for promotion to Step 5.

The 2016-17 season was the most memorable in the history of Ashby Ivanhoe Football Club. For the very first time in the clubs history they were accepted to play in the most famous club competition in the world, The FA Cup. It turned into a thrilling journey with higher ranked opponents of Quorn and Loughborough Dynamo knocked out before Ashby fell to Ilkeston in the 1st Qualifying Round. Prior to the Ilkeston defeat Ashby received a visit from the FA Cup which was paraded through the town centre visiting local sponsors before players and spectators had the opportunity to view the cup at the NFU Sports Ground.

The league season was inconsistent with a strong finish to the season seeing the team finish in tenth place. The season did end with a first appearance in the final of the Jenkins & Jenkins League Cup but Dunkirk overturned a one goal deficit late on to see Ashby end as runners-up. 

The 2017-18 season saw the 1st team finish Seventeenth in the East midland Counties and the Reserves finished in the bottom Two and relegation to Division One.

2018-19 saw the 1st team finish in the bottom half of the East Midlands Counties Football League and The Reserves now called the Knights finish runners up in the Senior League Division One and promoted back to step 7 in the Senior League Premier Division. 

In the 2019-20 season Ashby first team faced a fresh challenge when they were moved to the Midland Premier League Division one by the FA in a shake up of the NLS, the season as we all know was expunged due to the pandemic. The Reserves league also had all results expunged. 

In the 2021/22 season, the club secured their highest ever league finish, finishing 4th Place and securing a place in the play-offs, where we faced local rivals Stapenhill in the semi-finals and lost 4-2.

2021 saw the club re-constituted as a Community Interest Club (CIC) and made another significant step forward as we secured the purchase of our ground on Lower Packington Road, paving the way to develop our facilities further and provide a community hub for the town.

The 2022/23 season was one for the record books and it was quite fitting that during the year the club celebrated its 75th Anniversary, the Senior and Junior sections, both thrived bringing home a whole raft of silverware and promotions. The First Team fought eventual league winners Dudley Town all the way to the end and finished 2^nd place - the highest league position that the club has ever finished. This led to a home play-off Semi-Final, which saw us narrowly beat OJM Black Country 1-0 to reach the Play-Off Final. The Play-Off Final was a momentous day in the history of the club as it would see us beat Droitwich Spa 2-1 with a last-minute Joel Carta goal in front of a packed NFU crowd of 1023 to seal promotion and bring Step 5 to the town for the first time ever.

The First Team campaign was soon topped off and turned into a Play-Off Final and cup double as we comfortably beat Lutterworth Athletic 3-1 at Holmes Park to lift the Leicestershire Senior Cup, a trophy we have came runners up in twice before.

The Knights bounced straight back up to the Senior League Premier division having been relegated the previous season. The league was very much a 3-horse race down to the wire between ourselves, Aylestone Park and North Kilworth, with us only dropping 12 points all season to top the league by 2 points. Along the way the Knights also made it to the Presidents Trophy Final, beating Holwell Sports Reserves 3-0 to make it a memorable season all round. 

CLUB HONOURS 

East Midlands Counties Football League 

League Cup Runners Up: 2016/2017 

Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division Champions: 2010/2011 

Division One Winners: 2022/23 

Division One Runners Up: 2007/2008 

North Leicestershire Football League Premier Division Champions: 1994/1995, 1996/1997 1998/1999, 2002/2003 

Premier Division Runners-Up: 1997/1998, 2004/2005 

Cobbin Trophy Winners: 1996/1997 

Chairmans Shield Winners: 1995/1996, 1996/1997 

Leicestershire Senior Cup Winners: 2022/23 Runners Up: 2011/2012, 2012/2013 

Coalville Charity Cup Winners: 2010/2011 Runners Up: 2002/2003 

Midland Football League Division One Play Off Final Winners: 2022/23 

Presidents Trophy Winners: 2022/23