It is the story of a non-League club and their rapid rise up the English football pyramid, fuelled by novice owners, savvy social media engagement and U.S. investment.
No, this is not Wrexham . This is Walton & Hersham. Hollywood actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds have invested £9million ($11.
8m) in Wrexham since November 2020, securing a documentary and two consecutive promotions to take them two tiers from the Premier League . Walton & Hersham have had to do it a different way. The Surrey-based club, who play close to London’s River Thames, have a strong heritage as an amateur club.
They beat Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 in the first round of the FA Cup in 1973, while their crowning moment came in the same year when they won the FA Amateur Cup at Wembley in front of a record crowd of 44,000. Advertisement They have flirted with famous names, too. The first Ballon d’Or winner, Sir Stanley Matthews, was club president in the 1980s, Dragons’ Den entrepreneur and former Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis used to be a board member, and the voice of the Premier League for over two decades, Martin Tyler, was part of the coaching staff in 2006.
Come the summer of 2019, however, Walton & Hersham were facing the abyss. They had plummeted to the 10th tier, been evicted from their Stompond Lane home and been reduced to a park team. An increasingly apathetic fanbase had drifted away completely.
Fast forward five years and they are aiming for their fourth promotion in five years. .