The founder of one of Kent’s largest and most well-known youth football clubs has been reflecting on their remarkable rise ahead of a major milestone.

Faversham Strike Force, formed by Gary Axford, is celebrating their 25-year anniversary today.

“It’s really flown by,” said Axford, who’s now Strike Force’s club manager. “But, at the same time, I can still remember those early days.

“It’s quite spooky, really, with how quickly that time has gone and how vivid my memories are.”

With Faversham Town not having the youth section they have today back in 1999, the dad-of-three explained how looking for somewhere for his eldest two sons to play football helped inspire him to form the club.

He said: “My oldest two sons, Chris and Tom, were looking to play football.

“Chris was probably seven and Tom maybe was five. Back in those days, there wasn’t any youth section at Faversham Town.

"Previous to that, they did have quite a good youth section because, when I was a kid, I played there.

“But they had a barren spell where they didn’t have any youth and that was the time when my oldest two boys were looking to play football.

“That’s how it all started, really. Just with a small group of lads at The Mount - all different ages. There was a coaching session going on and I took Chris and Tom.

“It was very unstructured - we didn’t play any team games, we didn’t play in a league - and it, literally, was just a gathering.

“Within six months, I’d got involved, taken it over and turned it into a football club.”

While there was little structure to the sessions Chris and Tom, an England Schoolboy international, initially got involved in, the appetite for youth-team football in Faversham was evident to Gary.

“There was a young lad from out of the area who got about a dozen kids together,” Axford recalled. “He was just doing some coaching with them.

“It was all very ad-hoc and off-the-cuff. I took Chris and Tom along to those sessions.

“They were both football-mad, so it didn’t make any difference to them with how unstructured it was. But I just felt at the time that there was something there.

“I just needed to get a little bit of my own knowledge of how to set-up a club and run coaching sessions. So, I did a little bit of research.

“I’d done my first coaching badge within six months and then decided to turn it into an actual football club.

“I designed the badge and just did everything from scratch, really, including pulling the committee together.”

Since then, the club - particularly their youth section - have gone from strength-to-strength.

Axford, who plans to hold an event to mark the milestone at Shepherd Neame’s Old Brewery Store this October, said: “When we first set up, I affiliated the club and set up the badge. Then, we had to find a league to play in.

“At that time, there was a local league in Doddington and only three clubs in it - Doddington themselves, Sittingbourne Tigers and Faversham Strike Force. We played games against each other for a couple of years.

“Then, we sort of grew and joined the East Kent Youth League with a few teams.

“We got a bit more competitive and then we kept adding teams every year, bringing more volunteers on, mostly parents of the players. Probably in the last 10 years, it has grown exponentially!

“It was growing pretty fast anyway - but we’re going to have probably 46 teams this coming season.”

The first-team have established themselves in recent years as a Southern Counties East Division 1 outfit in Step 6 of the pyramid, losing a play-off semi-final to Lydd last April.

Axford, who stood down as the senior side’s boss last October, said: “When we were playing in the Kent County League, we were quite ambitious at the time but felt that the Southern Counties East League would be a big step up for us.

“We have sort of established ourselves at that level over the last three years. When I was running the team, we got to the play-offs and only narrowly missed out on promotion.

“Last season was a bit more difficult and we finished in mid-table.

"So, that’s all going very well and we’re adding a reserve side this year, as well, and we also have two Sunday sides and a ladies’ team.

"The ladies’ section is thriving and the girls’ section is growing.”

Former Whitstable, Sheppey and Canterbury City coach Craig Coles has joined as first-team head coach, with striker Alex Willis rejoining.

Willis started his youth career at Strike Force and, after being signed by Charlton, he has played for Sheppey, Lordswood and K Sports following a spell in the United States.

Axford said: “That’s a big thing for us to keep youngsters and adolescents when they get older involved in the club in some way, whether they carry on playing, whether they become a referee or whether they become a coach.

“If you look at our first team now, we have got players at the club that have played for the club at pretty much all the age-group levels.”

The first team ground-share with Faversham Town at Salters Lane.

“One of the criteria when we moved from the Kent County League was to play at a ground that had better facilities,” explained Axford. “For a short time, we went to Rochester United.

“Then, we came back to Faversham Town. It’s been a really good move for us.

"We love it there. We’re in the town and our fan-base is actually quite good.

“We were second in the league for average attendance last year.”

Axford’s youngest son, Jordan, is involved at the club, as well - as is wife Tracy.

Gary noted: “My wife has had to put up with me for 25 years, being involved in this football club!

"My boys have grown up not knowing much else, really.

“Even my father-in-law (Terry Scott), who was our chairman for more than 10 years, has been massively influential in driving us forward.”

As for where Faversham Strike Force will be in 25 years’ time, Axford said: “I dread to think!

“Thinking about it realistically, how sustainable it is will depend on Swale Council to a certain extent and green space. We probably have exhausted pretty much all of the green space in Faversham.

“The more people they bring into the town, the more space we are going to need to keep growing.

"We have got a waiting list of more than 120 players at the moment.”