After 46 years of passion, graft and dedication, it took just a few seconds and a Trowbridge and District League email to bring Bradford United F.C.’s spirited adventure to a melancholic close.

Due to a lack of finances or players, lower league minnows are never too far away from the uncertain abyss of ceasing to be. However when that nightmare becomes a reality it leaves a path of dejection.

“I’m devastated,” said club chairman and secretary Jeff Evans, who spent much of his time fundraising for the club and keeping match fees down. “It was everything to me but I had a magical time at the club. 42 years of joy.”

That ‘magic’ and ‘joy’ is what kept this club going for 46 years, but a dearth of players proved its undoing.

Rewind to June 1, 1969, where a bunch of former school friends from Bradford on Avon, among others, put their heads together to merge Widbrook Sports, a well funded club but one lacking in facilities, with the cash-strapped but well resourced Bradford Town.

And thus, after 18 months of preparation, Bradford United F.C. were born.

Frank Doomer, Kerwin Cole, Roger Payne, Wilf James and his sons Alex and Basil nurtured this proverbial bud, to a blossoming title and cup winning side throughout the 1980’s and 90’s.

Their side lifted the Trowbridge and District League three times, with a handful of KO Cups, Wiltshire Junior cups and a hatful of A and B Cups – three of which were consecutive from 1988-1990.

'Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.' This reasoning stopped the side finding pastures new in the Wiltshire League, despite their success. It proved to be the right, long-term decision, as the side became a perennial mid-table club.

Was there a greatest moment for club treasurer Mr Payne?

“Steve Ellis, perhaps our greatest player, scoring 39 goals in the 1992-93 season or keeper Kevin Haynes’ cup final heroics against Heytesbury F.C. before winning on penalties, but sometimes it can be the little things,” he said.

“Sometimes I think, ‘what am I doing here?’ standing in the freezing cold or ankle deep in mud cheering for my team. But then you score and you realise you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else – it’s been quite a ride.”

These intangible and fleeting moments cannot be explained, but they stay with you. 46 years of that spirited ethos and drive epitomises the joy that comes with a passion like this – something that many seek and few ever find.