It’s safe to say Tiverton Town went through quite a confusing period last year.
In April 2023, Chairman Ian Moorcroft stood down after 20 years on the club board, only to then return in November.
During the five months without Moorcroft at the helm a new chairman came and went, a manager was sacked, club legends and long-serving volunteers departed. All of which the club faced backlash for some decisions it made.
Shortly after Moorcroft leaving the club, Matthew Conridge returned to Town onto the board, having previously been one of the youngest Chairs in the English football history back in 2012.
Semi-Professional spoke to Matt about his time as Chairman and the recent confusion.
“I’ve supported Tiverton Town since back in 1999 when we went to Wembley for the FA Vase final. I always had an interest in the club and it almost manifested itself back in 2011 when I was asked to be a director on the board and it went from there.
On being the youngest Chairman in English football history he said, “It was very strange I didn’t expect to be on the front page of the news. I was very proud we are a members based club and when I was elected to be Chairman it was a massive honour. It’s a proper football club that’s been around for 111 years. We’re a legacy club.”
Conridge took time away from the club as he has a young family, and hadn’t been part of the club
The Vice Chairman spoke about Ian Moorecroft leaving and what went on afterwards, “Ian has been at the club for 20 years, he’s Tiverton Town through and through, he stepped forward and contributed until he felt it was right for him and his family to step back and let someone else takeover.”
In June last year, Micheal Dunford answered the call to arms from the club to become Chairman and set up his own committee before the season started.
It wasn’t until July when Conridge returned to the frame, initially as a board member to help hand.
“It’s always clever to speak to people who have already been at the club to get started so that was my role, a helping hand. We had that desire to win and achieve and I just got caught in which happens a lot in football.”
Changes happened at the club such as the manager Martyn Rogers who had managed over 1000 games for the club being sacked.
“It wasn’t easy, he’s a Tiverton Town legend. It’s never easy to work out when the right time is and it’s never really an easy decision.
Change can be really difficult, sometimes it works well and you’re the hero and sometimes it blows up in your face so it’s never easy.”
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Discussing Dunford’s departure, Conridge said that previous experience in the game didn’t quite add up to being the Chairman of Tiverton.
“I think for Micheal it wasn’t quite the right fit, he tried his hardest at the club but he’d previously been at clubs up the leagues such as Everton so it was a completely different stage.
“He wanted to do something for fun and it probably got to a point where it was no longer fun.”
During Dunford’s tenure, the club faced plenty of backlash from fans on social media.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we aren’t going to take away fans’ opinions. People have seen how we’ve progressed the club and certain things happen for certain reasons. Sometimes the club has to take the silent approach which is frustrating but sometimes we have to bite the bullet and take the flack.”
Since Moorcroft returned as Chairman in late November the ship has been steadied in Devon.
“What Ian wanted to do was to see the club move in the right direction and we managed to sell our dream of moving the club forward. He’s in it for the right reasons and he is loved across the whole area.”
The club is optimistic going forward and Conridge along with the board understand the reputational damage that was caused, saying that there was ‘quite a fair lot of backlash’ over that period of time.
“It took some work to get the club back on track but I think now everyone involved knows we are heading in the right direction.”
Looking forward, the club wants to evolve and grow with the mens team along with a women’s team and a proper academy. The foundations being built now allows the club to think about progressing as a club.
“We want to be sustainable and think about pushing on upwards seriously before we do push on upwards.”
Photo credit: Viv Curtis