FEATURE - 1975/76 FA Vase Win – 50 Seasons On

Fifty seasons on from our iconic maiden FA Vase triumph at Wembley, it’s only right to look back on a cup campaign, and a season, that saw four trophies added to our illustrious honours board.

Managed by John Newman, the 1975/76 season proved to be a watershed moment for the Blues, as our squad filled with club legends embarked on the most remarkable of seasons, culminating in our first-ever trip to Wembley and sparking an era of dominance within the local and national non-league scene.

The Road to Wembley

Our FA Vase campaign began in the first round in late October 1975 away at Hatfield Town, where a Tony Wakefield goal earned a 1–1 draw after extra time. A week later, it was our all-time top goalscorer Fred Clayden’s brace that saw us past the north Essex side as we secured a 2–0 win at New Lodge.

In the second round, we saw off Crown & Manor of the London Spartan League with a 2–0 win on the road, thanks to goals from John Geddes and Gary Smith. We progressed further in early December with a 1–0 win at home to Epping Town, with Geoff Aslett — a name soon to be written in our history forever — grabbing the only goal of the game.

City of Norwich School OBU were the visitors to New Lodge in the fourth round, and we emerged victorious with a 2–1 win, with Clayden and Aslett again on the scoresheet. Hungerford Town were next to arrive in Essex with just 16 teams remaining, and 900 people watched on as goals from Clayden and Smith fired us into the last eight.

A trip to Gloucestershire for the quarter-finals took us to Cadbury Heath, where the Blues delivered the most commanding performance of the Vase campaign to run out 3–0 winners, with Aslett, Clayden, and Wakefield on the scoresheet to send most of the 1,250 crowd home unhappy.

Then came the two-legged semi-final showdown with Farnborough Town — a side we would become very familiar with in the FA Vase! A huge crowd of 3,193 packed into New Lodge for the first leg, where goals from Steve Bone and Clayden secured a 2–1 lead to defend in Hampshire. And defend it we did, as we held firm in front of over 2,600 people to earn a goalless draw and book our place at Wembley.

The Final

On 10th April 1976, the Blues walked out in front of 11,858 fans to face Stamford in our first-ever FA Vase Final.

Ninety tense minutes ensued without a breakthrough for either side, and the game headed to extra time in search of a hero…

That hero was our very own Geoff Aslett.

In the 99th minute, Gary Smith picked up the ball on the right and surged inside. He found Aslett on the edge of the box, who skipped past his marker into the box, drew the keeper, and slotted it into the bottom corner to win the FA Vase for Billericay Town!

A Historic Season

The story didn’t end at Wembley either. Just a week later, we lifted the Essex Senior Cup for the first time, edging a five-goal thriller against Epping Town. Then in May, a 6–3 win at home to Brentwood clinched back-to-back Essex Senior League titles with three games still to play.

We even added a fourth trophy to the cabinet — the JT Clark Memorial Trophy — thanks to another win over Epping, this time 2–0. It capped off a remarkable, trophy-laden campaign and one of the most successful seasons in the club’s history.

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