Gallopers FC

Darren Pearson formed the club while working at Bargain Motor Spares and the club entered the Sunday Alliance for the 1999-2000 season as BMS Autos, with the initial team line-up including three players who actually worked for the firm. BMS had a shaky start in division four, but things improved dramatically when manager Pearson signed two 16-year-olds to partner each other up front. Youngsters Paul Hickey and Steve Bromley were an immediate success and the pair played a big part in a 14-match unbeaten revival which saw BMS finish in fifth place. They were promoted to division 3B, but things were bleak, as only a week prior to the season Pearson had only seven players signed on to appear for the team. Luckily a nucleus of six or seven players who had experience with Fagley came and joined. Bromley moved to East Ward and Hickey to Fagley and although BMS opened their division three account with five successive defeats, the club had not been particularly outplayed in any of the matches and still believed they could turn things around. And in a similar story to their debut season, BMS totally their fortunes around. Geoff Fletcher, formerly of Station Athletic and Fagley, was an astute signing. He soon solved the goalscoring problem and his 19-goal tally helped BMS collect 41 of the last 51 points available to them. They finished fourth and it looked like they had missed out on promotion, but a team dropped out before the season started and the club, who have changed their name to Gallopers for the new season, were promoted. There should be interesting times ahead.