Abbeymead Rovers Football Club are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.

A lot has happened over the past two decades of course.

Back in 1997 Tony Blair was this country’s new prime minister, the Spice Girls were all the rage and Wimbledon finished eighth in the Premier League, well ahead of clubs like Spurs and Everton.

A lot has happened to Abbeymead Rovers over the past 20 years as well of course.

From small beginnings the Gloucester-based club have become a major force in county football, fielding a remarkable 44 football teams in a wide variety of leagues across all age ranges.

For Stuart Langworthy, who was one of the founders of the “housing estate football club in a rugby-made city”, it is a dream come true to see so many people enjoying the sport that he himself loves so much.

The chairman of the past 18 years said: “We had five or six teams when I took over as chairman. Since then we’ve just grown and grown and we’re at full capacity in terms of our youth set-up.

“We’ve got teams for boys and girls from under-5s all the way through to under-16s. For the girls the age group jump is every two years but that’s still an awful lot of players.

“For the boys, we’ve got five under-10 teams as well as a development squad.

“We pride ourselves on being all inclusive, anyone is welcome to come along and train.”

It’s not just the youth set-up that is a thriving concern.

“We’ve got three senior Saturday men’s teams,” said Langworthy. “The 1sts play in Division Two of the Northern Senior League and the 2nds and 3rds play in the Stroud League.

“We’ve also got a Sunday team that play in the Gloucester Sunday League – they were runners-up in the league and cup last season – and a ladies’ team that play in the County League.”

And while all of that is good – very good in fact – there are other things that please Langworthy even more about the club that are so close to his heart.

“Our community section is one of the biggest in the country in terms of adult male participation,” he said. “We’ve got five teams playing in the Ability Counts League which is a competition for disadvantaged people or for those with a physical disability.

“There are four divisions in Gloucestershire and we won all four last season, and our other team finished runners-up.

“To see 30 or 40 out on the astroturf at Abbeydale Community Centre on a Friday night is amazing.”

Abbeymead work in association with Sofab Sports to provide the opportunity for people to play a sport they otherwise would not get the chance to do.

“Sofab was set up by Chris Rawlings, who is an ex-secretary of Abbeymead,” said Langworthy. “His son Dale now runs it and he and my son Ben, who are both 20, run the community section at the club.

“We get people with cerebral palsy and people in foster care who come along and it’s their only escapism. It’s awesome to see them all enjoying playing football.”

Clearly the club are enjoying great success on all fronts but with success can come the odd problem of course.

“The biggest problem is that we don’t have one base,” admitted Langworthy.

“All the youth teams train at Abbeydale Community Centre from Mondays to Fridays with the youngest training there on Saturday mornings.

“The seniors train at St Peter’s School and we’ve also got a couple of teams that train at Millbrook Academy.”

It becomes even more complicated when you try to work out where all the teams play their matches.

“We’ve got pitches at Abbeymead School, Lobleys Drive, Heron Park, Glevum Park, The Oaks and The Clock Tower,” said Langworthy, “and the 1sts and 2nds play at Windfall Lane in Barnwood.

“It does mean we’re a bit dotted around the place.”

It also means that Langworthy does a fair few miles each weekend just so he can get round to see as many of the club’s teams as possible. Not that he finds that a chore of course, and he particularly enjoys watching all the youngsters hoping to become the next Harry Kane or Marcus Rashford.

“Just seeing the sheer volume of kids playing football is great,” said Langworthy. “There are more people playing football in Gloucester than there are playing rugby. Just seeing how proud people are to be part of our club and to wear the club badge is something really special.

“When we started we always wanted to be an inclusive, safe and fun club. We try to do things properly and we also give people the chance to become referees or to coach. It’s incredibly rewarding seeing people develop.”

The rewards don’t come without a lot of time and effort of course, and Langworthy is the first to admit that he couldn’t do everything he does without the support of his wife Judith.

Mind you, she does her fair share of work too.

“She runs the ladies’ teams,” chuckled Stuart, “and has done since we formed the club 20 years ago.

“She also organises the Abbeymead youth tournament which attracts over 100 teams every year.”

And that’s not all because she also organises the club’s annual presentation evening at Abbeydale Community Centre at the end of the season.

“Over 1,000 people turn up and we have four sittings,” said her husband. “It’s a very important event because it brings everyone in the club together.”

Langworthy knows the importance of these awards days because the now 56-year-old was a half-decent footballer himself back in the day.

“I played for Longford in the Northern Senior League,” he said. “I was a nippy striker. My most successful time was playing for Northern Star in the Gloucester Sunday League when I scored goals for fun.

“I scored something like 250 goals for them in 240 games.”

On the pitch and off the pitch, Stuart Langworthy has certainly made a major contribution to football – and walking football – in Gloucester and beyond.