South Leeds - John Charles South Leeds Stadium

South Leeds FC

John Charles Stadium

Belle Isle

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Ground Number: 1508

Friday 19th December 2025

South Leeds 0-1 Worsbrough Bridge Athletic
NCEL D1

SOUTH LEEDS FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club is one of the youngest in football, having been formed as recently as 2017 as NEW MIDDLETON. They started out as a Sunday team in the Leeds Combination but withdrew partway through the season. The following year, they switched to Saturday football, joining the Yorkshire Amateur League. They started out in Division 3, which is step 12 of the non-league pyramid or level 16 of English football. They won the title in their first season, winning 21 out of 22 games. As a result, they were promoted four levels to the Premier Division (step 8). They changed their name to MIDDLETON and were 2nd in the league when the season was ended early. The following season, they won the title by a ten-point margin and with it, promotion to the Supreme Division. In 2022, they finished as runners-up to Littletown before finishing 3rd in 2023, both as top scorers. The same was true when they won the title in 2024, after which they were renamed SOUTH LEEDS following a merger with a local youth team. They have been in the Northern Counties East Division 1 ever since.

After starting out at the New Forest Playing Fields for their debut season, they moved to Middleton Road upon reaching the Premier Division. For the step up to semi-pro football, they moved to the South Leeds Stadium (with the complex named in honour of Leeds United and Wales legend John Charles). South Leeds made their debut in the FA Vase this season, falling at the first hurdle to Barnton on penalties, following a 2-2 draw. Local honours include the Yorkshire Amateur League Hancock Cup in 2019, the Yorkshire Amateur League Cup in 2022 and the Leeds & District FA Senior Challenge Cup in 2022.

MY VISIT

South Leeds had been a long-term target for me, and I presumed that I would be doing it on the National Express, which has numerous connections from London. It was a rarity as it was a ground that he had done and I hadn't.  He had gone with Hertfordshire Hopper on a Wednesday night, with him having a day off the next day at the time, the late night would not affect him. In any case, he could sleep through an earthquake and didn't have the burden of driving. I was thinking of my work alarm at 3.50 the next morning and opted against it. Upon reflection, I wish I'd taken the plunge, but what was done was done, and the perfect opportunity came up this Friday. Colin was keen to go to Emley, which I had visited in 2015 on the NCEL. South Leeds were also at home, and with 25 minutes between the grounds, it was a good opportunity to catch each other up. I hope to do the same with Louth Town, Chester-le-Street Town & Penzance.

From our game at Chessington on Tuesday, I drove Colin & me back home, listening to Greatest Hits Radio as ever. I dropped him off at 10:35 and got home myself by 10.50. I can never drop off quickly, and it must have been about 11.40 before I dropped off. I felt OK at 3.50 the next morning, though. At least that was until I got to work and they were playing Christmas music at a much higher-than-usual volume. This was remedied for a couple of hours by listening to an audiobook through my Bluetooth music hat. It was generally a decent and stress-free day overall. I finalised this trip. I was originally considering staying overnight, but with there being very few morning games due to Christmas, I decided against it. Work got busier and busier as the week wore on, getting nearer to the pure hell that was Christmas. Thursday took me nearly an hour to get home, triple the usual time due to the school turfing out early. I was intending to get an early night as I have a long day on Friday.

I made sure to leave early on Friday morning to get petrol before work. It was another grim day with Christmas coming up, super busy and with constant Christmas music, torture for retail colleagues, on a par with waterboarding. My shift ran over by ten minutes, but thankfully, the drive home was only slightly delayed, as schools finished early again. I only had 20 minutes at home before I had to drive again, and I wish I had someone else to share the driving. That said, one of the Essex hoppers I know uses every trick in the book to avoid driving, the latest excuse being tiredness and leaves it to two pensioners to ferry him around. I left at 2, and there was a slight delay picking up Colin due to a line of large vehicles under escort. We were on our way, and it took us unexpectedly through Aylesbury. On reflection, I should have got the gorilla to meet me locally, but we were still bang on schedule. There was a ten-minute delay near Mansfield, but the rest of the journey was fine. Not bad with an expected 24 million cars on the road according to Greatest Hits Radio. We stopped at the Wagon and Horses Wetherspoons in Chapeltown. The town was in gridlock, but eventually we parked in ASDA and walked. The pub was rammed, full of once-a-year pub goers in their Christmas jumpers and very noisy with it. Even so, service was impeccable with festive sharer chips and a lime cordial costing £9.39. Colin mucked around going in ASDA, which delayed us a bit. We got to Emley at 7, beautiful in the day, but the tight roads weren't the greatest at night. It was another 25 minutes to South Leeds, thankfully mainly on motorways. No sign of a petrol station, but I would sort that later. There was a huge amount of parking, but it was very busy. Entry was a bargain at £5. It was an impressive, albeit one-sided stadium, but there were no objections about my walking across to get photos. 

South Leeds sat 18th in the table, having won six, drawn four and lost fourteen of their games so far. They had lost their last three, going down 4-1 at Wakefield in their latest game last Friday. Worsbrough Bridge Athletic were 3rd and had won seventeen, drawn three and lost four. They were thirteen unbeaten in the league and had drawn 1-1 at home to Nostell MW last time out. South Leeds had the first attack, but the corner came to nothing. Worsbrough Bridge then had an attack, but the goal into the bottom left-hand corner was ruled out for offside. The hosts continued to have the better of the chances and had a couple of shots cleared off the line. On 37 minutes, the visitors took the lead, a tame shot from Josh Brown somehow made it past the keeper. There was a long delay in the game after a minor incident. Kieron Telford got a second yellow for a push, and there were a few words exchanged. It took a full five minutes to get back underway, with the players just wanting to get on with it. South Leeds hit the right-hand post with five minutes of normal time remaining and looked a lot better than recent form suggested. They also had a chance right at the death, a player got clear but left it just too long to pull the trigger, and the keeper managed to keep it out. A late free kick gave the hosts another chance, but the ball went straight into the wall, and there was a fracas when the keeper went down in the resulting melee. The referee's self-indulgence meant it had been a frustrating, bitty, and late-finish game for the 118 in attendance.

 

THE GROUND 

THE JOHN CHARLES STADIUM is a single-sided venue, but the stand is excellent, offering good views from its 3,500 capacity. You can sit high enough to get a decent view, even with the running track. There was no food or merch that I saw, but there was a smart rugby bar for Hunslet RFC, the primary tenants. This offered a decent range, including Somersby for cider drinkers. I don't recall seeing much near the stadium, but it is close to the M621 motorway.