That was 2025 – a letter from the Editor

Happy New Year to you all!

In terms of local football, 2025 has had its ups and its downs as far as the game goes. From championship titles to relegations, last-ditch escapes to hitting the play-offs on the final day.

I have three favourite moments from the last year which I will quickly tell you about. 1) Being present as Woodley United thumped Oxhey Jets on the final night of the season 5-0 to secure a ‘great escape’, the first time the club had been outside of the drop zone all season, and richly deserved for sheer will and perseverance of everyone at the club. 

2) The Berkshire Football Awards but in particular watching the standing ovation received by Devonn Reid as he took home Manager of the Season, and Margaret Wrigley’s triumphant speech as she was accepted the Darrell Freeland Award for service to the game. 

3) Finally getting our much talked about tournament on at Reading City – it was a wonderful day and wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing effort of the Cityzens, the FiB team and our wonderful sponsors PLAION.

We have big plans for 2026 including a full redesign of the website with reduced ads, more ways for clubs to post their own content and reports, encourage and give more opportunity to voices from across the county and over our borders – all of this (with a fair wind) should be live by the end of January.

We will be launching a reader-contribution platform which will reduce our reliance on all those ads you see on the site (the site will not go behind a paywall at all – you have my promise and guarantee on that, but if you are able to contribute, we’d love to have you on board). We will still run some advertising, but it’ll be based on local businesses and be significantly less intrusive to your experience (and if you are a local business, we’d love to hear from you).

2026 will be the 10th anniversary of Football in Berkshire. When we started in 2016 it was just me and Duds trying to find a way to satisfy our desire to be part of something that we’d lost, and do something bigger than just one club. I think we achieved that and then some.

It’s been a difficult 24 months or so. My own work situation(s) has made producing content much harder. Personally, I remain as passionate as ever about the burgeoning grassroots game in our county, and I want to make sure the site is around for at least another 10 years.

A massive thank you to the team behind the site, Steve, Abi, Alicia, Rob, Neil M, Neil G, Dan, Bob and our contributors Steve Jinman and Dave Reid, amongst others. A very special thanks to Paul Faulkner and Andrew Spiers for their continued web support, as well as all our contributing photographers.

2026 dates for the diary

Monday 16th March – 10 years of Football in Berkshire. We’ll be holding a celebration evening with guest speakers and more to be announced. Keep the evening free. Tickets will be available very soon

Wednesday 10th June – Berkshire Football Awards. Our annual feel-good night of the football year, hosted by Paul Watson at Double Barrelled Brewery in Reading.

Late July – The PLAION Launchpad Berkshire 5s will return. Can PWC retain their crown? Funding for this event, which raises money for Reading homelessness charity Launchpad, has been secured. Date TBC.

We also owe you two ‘Hitting The Road’ events before the end of the season, where the Football in Berkshire team get out and properly promotes a grassroots game.

Finally..

We are looking for sponsors into 2026. Whether it’s the awards night, tournament or the website as a whole. If you are looking to get your business out there next year, we may just be the platform you are looking for. We’re community-focused, we’re hyper-local in Berkshire, we’ll go above and beyond and most of all, we’ll tell people about what you do.

Do get in touch!

Happy New Year,

Tom Canning