1,000 games milestone reached.

Southport & Ainsdale Amateurs FC Chairman and co-founder David Stroud started managing football teams at Ainsdale Club over 33 years ago under the name of Metro Ainsdale FC.
In the 1989/90 season he suffered a badly broken leg and took the team on as no one else wanted to do it. The team had plenty of success winning league titles and numerous cups but the team ethic was to simply enjoy playing football as a group of mates. The highlight of their success was a ‘Infirmary Cup’ win v Ship FC which lasted three hours and ten mins after two serious injuries delayed the game. A number of years later the game was even mentioned on Talk Sport after they found out how long the game was. Metro won the game on pens after extra time. The Metro team finished a few years later as age caught up with them but they immediately reformed as Metro FC Old Boys. They entered the lower league and won the league and cup double in their one and only season fittingly finishing on a high.

When Metro finished Dave started running an Ainsdale Juniors team in which his eldest son Joshua started playing for. This team has gone through all the age groups and carried on into senior football now playing in the Mid Lancashire League under the banner of Southport & Ainsdale Amateurs FC.

David has been associated with Ainsdale Juniors from the early nineteen seventies so when Ainsdale Juniors as a club were struggling to survive, David helped create a new brand called Southport & Ainsdale Amateurs FC in 2012 with the emphasis on creating teams from mini soccer to senior football.

During the period from Ainsdale Juniors to today, he has managed several teams of all age groups from under sevens to senior players some of which have played for him from being six years old and still play today in their mid twenties. Both as players his sons, Joshua and youngest Ethan, have been integral to David continuing over the years. In 2020 David was presented with a thirty year award by the Lancashire FA for his services to football as a volunteer. He has been known to manage teams on both Saturday and Sunday for a number of years and given that he never seems to stop he will reach the unbelievable milestone of 1,000 games as a manager on the 2nd December at The Ainsdale Club kick off 2pm.