Since Lee Bradbury’s appointment as manager, the Hawks have been on a rollercoaster journey with both highs and lows culminating in the Hawks’ promotion to The National League in 2018.

 

Bradbury’s first full season in charge of the club saw the Hawks reach the semi-finals of The FA Trophy for only the second time in the club’s history before being beaten by local rivals Gosport Borough to be denied a place in the Wembley showpiece.

 

However, a run of successive postponements meant the side had to play 13 matches in 43 days and such an accumulation of matches seemed to be the undoing of the sides hopes of making the Skrill South play-offs with a late Dover penalty seeing them sneak into the final spot and then winning promotion to the Vanarama Conference.

 

Following on from those disappointments, the Hawks looked to go from strength to strength. Havant reached the first round of The FA Cup for the first time since 2010 where they entertained Preston North End at Westleigh Park, a game which would be shown live on BT Sport in the UK and to viewers all around the globe. Unfortunately two red cards didn’t help our cause as the three time winners ran out 3-0 victors.

 

Bouncing back from that disappointment, the Hawks got themselves in the play-offs that season, a feat which eluded them the season before. The task in the semi-finals was a tie against Boreham Wood over two legs. The Wood ran out 2-0 winners at Westleigh Park, before a 2-2 draw at Meadow Park would be enough to see them win 4-2 on aggregate before winning the play-off final.

 

The 2015/16 season saw Havant have the tag of favourites to gain promotion to the promised land that was The National League. And despite decent runs in both The FA Cup and FA Trophy, a season of despair was on the cards at Westleigh Park. The Hawks were left in a situation where they had to beat Weston Super Mare on the final day to secure their status in the sixth tier or be faced with relegation. However, a 1-1 draw was all that they could muster and the Hawks would drop into the Ryman League Premier Division.

 

A first Hampshire Cup title did lighten the mood at Westleigh Park after a dramatic penalty shootout win over Winchester City at St. Mary’s Stadium.

 

Lee Bradbury stayed on at the Hawks and going into their first season in the Ryman Premier League decided to move to a more local based squad of players who would be hungry to wear the Havant badge. This meant the signings of the likes of Alfie Rutherford, Jason Prior, Rory Williams and Bradley Tarbuck alongside the star signing of Wes Fogden.

 

Havant had a heavy favourites tag to get out of the division first time and fell at the first hurdle with a 3-1 defeat to Leiston on the opening day.

 

However, the Hawks would hold their nerve to keep themselves locked in a tight title tussle with Bognor Regis Town which would go all the way.

 

The two sides faced off on the penultimate game of the season at Westleigh Park with a Bognor win securing them the title, and a Hawks win putting them in pole position going into the final day of the season. A Wes Fogden goal 10 minutes into the second half gave the Hawks the 1-0 win needed to put the league title in their own hands going into the final day.

 

Havant drew 0-0 with Kingstonian, but with Bognor being held by Met Police, the draw would be enough to see the Hawks back into The National League South at the first attempt.

 

In the summer of 2018, the signing of Matt Tubbs was announced to bolster the squad heading into its first season back in The National League South.

 

With the play-off system heading down to seventh place, hopes were high of a place in the end of season lottery.

 

However after a solid start to the season, where the Hawks found themselves fourth in the table, a run of victories in the New Year saw Havant climb to the top of the league table and locked into a title battle with Dartford.

 

Going into the final week of the season, the Hawks went into it behind Dartford by three points and on goal difference with a game in hand ahead of two final home fixtures.

 

The first took place on Wednesday 25th April against East Thurrock United. Having gone into the break 1-1, the Hawks put in a truly heroic second half display to win 6-1 and put them top of the table by 3 goals on goal difference going into the final day of the season.

 

The Hawks took on Concord Rangers at Westleigh Park whilst Bognor hosted Dartford. Havant went 2-0 up in the opening period and went into half-time confident of winning the title.

 

However, two goals from Concord twinned with Dartford’s win at Nyewood Lane meant that the Hawks looked as if they had missed out on a golden opportunity to play National League Football.

 

But in the 89th minute up stepped Jason Prior to score and send Westleigh Park into raptures as Havant and Waterlooville won The National League South, and with it a place in Non-League Football’s top tier for the first time.

 

The season also saw the Hawks win an unprecedented treble after winning both the Hampshire and Portsmouth Senior Cups.

 

The following season would be the Hawks’ first in The National League. With excitement building as to who our first game would be against, we would quickly learn about the travelling the division would entail when we faced Barrow away in our first league outing.

 

We would lose that game 3-0, before two home draws against Boreham Wood and AFC Fylde respectively.

 

Our first win as a National League side would come five games in when we came back from 3-2 down in the 94th minute to beat Braintree Town 4-3 in the 96th minute thanks to late goals from Nicke Kabamba and Alfie Rutherford.

 

Three weeks later we would host our first televised league match when BT Sport selected our game with Aldershot Town at Westleigh Park for live broadcast. Havant would win the game 2-1 thanks to goals by Theo Lewis and Paul Robinson in either half to secure the victory.

 

A barren run would follow which would leave the Hawks second bottom before Halloween. After a 4-0 defeat away to Leyton Orient, Lee Bradbury recalled striker Alfie Rutherford from his loan spell at Eastbourne Borough.

 

He would be on the scoresheet twice as we ran out 7-0 winners over Maidenhead United at home in our largest ever National League win. That was followed by four home wins on the bounce against bottom of the table rivals FC Halifax Town, Maidstone United and Braintree Town.

 

A barren run after Christmas seemed to be the Hawks’ downfall, victories against Barrow and Boreham Wood in consecutive league games was met with a run which saw the Hawks win just one league game afterwards.

 

Defeat at Solihull Moors on April 13 ultimately sealed Havant’s fate and relegation back into The National League South.

 

After a 2-0 defeat to Aldershot Town on the second to last day of the season, Lee Bradbury and Havant and Waterlooville parted company.

 

Shaun Gale took charge of the Hawks’ Hampshire Senior Cup final victory over Basingstoke Town, where we left it late to lift the trophy and our final league game against Barnet.

 

In April 2019, Havant and Waterlooville appointed Paul Doswell as manager.