Two non league clubs Dunstable Town and AFC Dunstable explain plans to merge at the end of the 2025/26 season.
They recently issued a statement on the matter which was first speculated on in the last few weeks, and this week, they joined Ollie Bayliss on BBC Three Counties Radio to talk more on it.
Dunstable Town, who were founded 1883, currently sit bottom in Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, Step 5, with 12 points from 23 games played.
AFC Dunstable, founded 1981, have more community-focused with strong youth/women’s sections, and they are bottom of the Southern League Division One Central, Step 4, with 10 points from 24 games played.
Main reasons for the merger include uniting fans/rivalry into one strong town team, providing a massive youth pathway for local talent, and better resources to climb the pyramid. Listen to the interview HERE or scroll on to read what they had to say.
JOINT STATEMENT | Please see the joint statement from Dunstable Town FC and AFC Dunstable below.#dunstable #football #nonleague pic.twitter.com/56nonM8irK
— Dunstable Town FC #tOWNtogether (@DunstableTownFC) January 18, 2026
Joint Statement from Dunstable Town Football Club and AFC Dunstable
Dunstable Town and AFC Dunstable can confirm that both clubs are engaged in positive and constructive discussions regarding a possible merger at the end of the current season.
Both clubs share a proud history, strong footballing philosophies, and a long-standing relationship built over many years of ground-sharing and healthy rivalry. While this season has been challenging for both clubs, we remain fully committed to our respective leagues and focused on doing everything we can to improve our league positions.
There is still a considerable amount of work ahead as we explore what a merger would look like, but the talks continue to be positive and enthusiastic. Boards, owners and committees are united in their belief that bringing the clubs together could offer exciting opportunities for the future.
In December, we notified the FA and our leagues of our intention to explore this possibility, and we will continue to keep our players, supporters, volunteers, and the wider community updated as discussions progress.
Ollie: “Can we start with you Matt? Both cubs have been sharing ground for years and years and years now, haven’t they? Why the decision for a merger now? What’s different now?”
Matt Carrington, the chairman of Dunstable Town: “What’s different now? Wow, that’s a great question. So at the beginning of the season, as was probably notated, AFC had unfortunately decided that they were unable to continue their support for the ladies team. So we obviously held out the olive branch with that. We were excited to try and get a ladies team in. But as well as that happening, there was a conversation that went on and to be honest, it was very complimentary of both teams. Both parties were like, this is interesting how we’ve got into this situation we are. And an informal conversation on the back of us onboarding the ladies team, which AFC were very helpful with, led to more and more conversations. And then the question of, is this the time? It was prevalent that maybe it is the right time. So that’s why we started talking informally to begin with. And that’s where we got to where we are now.”
Ollie: So Louise, what are the advantages of a merger? What are the pro points? What would it bring to both clubs?”
Louise Powell a committee member at AFC Dunstable: “Well, I think for Dunstable as a town, it would be a great advantage. Obviously having one team to support, bringing the fans together. I think there’s been probably some healthy rivalry, I would say, over many years between the two clubs. And actually we’ve always been competing for players, competing for fans. I think an opportunity to bring all the youth clubs together is really exciting too. So we’ll have 90 youth teams on it, which obviously means it will be one of the biggest youth set-ups in the county, which is just a great opportunity for us to really drive forward as a club.”
Ollie: You put the news on social media and announced it yesterday, didn’t you, that this is being looked at. Matt, so far how have supporters reacted to it? Because both clubs have got a really good and strong history. Dunstable have especially been around since 1883, a club that George Best has played for. Real history there. How are the supporters feeling about it?”
Matt: “Yeah, on the main, I think everyone’s been supportive. There’s obviously some unease there and some concerns and thoughts that people have, which we get on both sides. As you say, we’ve got some strong history. Both clubs have been very successful in the local area. But what we kind of said when we had our meeting with our owners to formalise the vote is the history of both clubs has got to be massively respected. These are achievements that both clubs have achieved, but we are able to bring those achievements together and obviously build a better team and hopefully a more successful team for the future.”
Ollie: “Yeah, that is the thing, Louise, isn’t it? I suppose it comes with the timing this season at a point where both teams are not doing particularly well in their respective divisions, especially AFC Dunstable. Lost a management team last week. I gather you had one senior player left on Friday last week and managed to get a team together for the weekend, but it lost 6-0. Things not going particularly well on the first team side of things. I know that both clubs are much more than just a men’s first team, but if you’re going to do it at any point, maybe the time to do it is when both clubs are struggling.”
Louise: “Yeah, I think so. Listen, we’ve had quite a turbulent time for a couple of years, really. We had some great success in our first season after Simon Ballard left us as chairman, but he left a huge hole. So I think over the last few years, we have been trying to establish ourselves as a committee and as a board. And it has been, as you say, quite a difficult season this season so far. But both clubs are, as you say, having a bit of a hard time of it. But we both remain massively committed to getting this season through and we’re really enthusiastic about our new management team. As you said, we had a very tough week last week trying to get a team fielded, but our youth team, our reserves, just did an amazing job for us on Saturday.”
Ollie: “So Matt, how will this work then in terms of a club name, kit, crest, all of those things that matter and the history and the friendly rivalry of both clubs? How on earth do you begin to amalgamate those two clubs together in a way that feels like a genuine merger rather than a takeover?
Matt: “Absolutely, yeah. So what we’re having at the minute is lots of talks behind the scenes. Met up about the youth section the other day. And essentially what we’re going to do is meet up and create kind of work groups to create the best way of moving forward. I’ll be brutally honest with you, lots of names have been bandied around, lots of club badges. I’ve seen quite some horror shows on social media of AI slop of what our badges may look like. But it’s all up for discussion in a minute and nothing’s off the table as far as I’m concerned. But ultimately what we want to do is be respectful to both sides and make sure that whatever happens, it’s going to be something that the town of Dunstable can be really proud of. And for us, what we ultimately see is a club that challenges as high up the league system as possible. We ultimately believe that step two, step one maybe, is not beyond the realms of impossibility when we join all our skills together and really get the town of Dunstable behind us.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Our sources understand AFC Dunstable and Dunstable Town are planning to merge at the end of the season 🤝
Both clubs currently play at Creasey Park.
⚽ A smart move for football in Dunstable or too much history lost?
💬 Have your say below 👇 pic.twitter.com/nLk2HzIZL8
— Beyond The 92 (@BeyondNinetyTwo) December 28, 2025
Ollie: “In the short term, how does it work in terms of the leagues? We also got the rule books out last year when we’re looking at the potential Real Bedford and Bedford Town merger. From my understanding, you have to sort of take the position of the lowest-ranked team when you merge two men’s senior sides, which Louise, it could be step six the way things might be going for Dunstable Town this season. Is that right? Have I got that right?”
Louise: “Yeah, you have got that right. Obviously, we’re hoping and all behind Dunstable Town to hope they keep their step five position because that’s where we want to be competing next year.”
Ollie: “And for AFC Dunstable, I know you said you’re putting together a team and you could argue sort of what’s the point at this stage? Because if AFC Dunstable get relegated and merge in the clubs anyway, it sort of all becomes a little bit meaningless, doesn’t it? Quite hard to motivate a manager and a player who are bottom of the league at this point, AFC Dunstable and it might not matter anyway, should they manage to stay up.”
Louise: “I think what we’re seeing actually is a management team, a new interim management team that are all AFC through and through and also players that really want to see and end the AFC period with pride, really. We don’t want to see that with a relegation. So if anything, if I’m honest, it’s given us a renewed vigour for the rest of this season. And we’ve got a team that really, I mean, some of the players that fielded on Saturday have been playing for AFC since they were seven, right? This is all about pride, all about our club and our love for our club. And we really want to see this the end of the year or out with a positive end to the season.”
Ollie: “Matt, you mentioned earlier about the youth sides and the women’s sides and walking football, dementia football, there’s loads of great stuff that both clubs do. It sounds like none of that is under threat and that’s all going to continue. There’s going to be lots of opportunities for all of that in Dunstable. But I guess there could only be one senior men’s first team, right? And whatever happens here, you could only have one man. At the moment, you’ve got two managers, two clubs, or you will have, you know, two sets of players. That merger, at least, is going to be a bit tricky, isn’t it? You’ve kind of got to go with one at the end of the season.”
Matt: “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Louise and I were talking about this last night and I fully agree with what she was saying in terms of, you know, AFC are really playing for pride at the minute and they want to get as high up the league and so do we as well. Both management teams are fully aware of what the situation is but are fully committed to, you know, essentially the here and now and trying to make sure that they are as successful with the teams that they have for the end of the season. I mean, it could mean that we might have 40, 50 people turn up for trials next season and then we can look to bring them into the fold as much as possible. Obviously, we have ambitions to continue with the development team that AFC have. So that’s kind of back our hope that if we can’t give the players the first team football, then there is the opportunity for development football. But funny what Louise was saying in terms of pathway for the kids coming through from both youth sections, that’s ultimately our key. You know, we’ve got Owen Russell on fringes of coming into the first team. He was playing in the final league the other day with the senior players and did not look out of place. You know, it’s really exciting maybe for the kids and for the club as a whole because for me, there’s so many talented players in the local area that will hopefully be able to play for the badge of Dunstable and ultimately be able to represent the town as high of a position as possible.”
Ollie: “It sounds like this feels not quite a done deal, but feels like this is definitely the plan and what feels likely to happen then. Louise, when will a definite decision be made? Is there a deadline to confirm all this for next season?”
Louise: “Yeah, so the deadline is March, right? We need to obviously have everything kind of in place to be able to make sure that we’re set up in the league for next year and that we know exactly what’s happening ahead of next year. So that’s what we’re working towards. We saw obviously last year with some of the conversations around mergers locally in the region that that’s not easy to do. So there is still a long way to go. But I think everybody on both sides of the fence is really enthusiastic about what this could look like going forward. Lots of conversations to be had with fans to make sure this is done in as sympathetic a way as possible to make sure, as Matt said earlier, that the histories are respected. But yeah, I think this is the way forward for us, for the town, for the clubs, and we’re really super excited about what it could look like moving forward.”
Ollie: “Well, I appreciate both of your time and it sounds like a really interesting project. On one hand, you’re bringing an end to, or potentially bringing an end to, what’s been a really fascinating history of both clubs. But if you can get supporters on board from both sides and pool resources, you could have a Dunstable side that’s supported by several hundred people on a Saturday, Matt, and create a real atmosphere and a buzz around the town and potential, as you said, to move up the leagues if you can harness what both clubs have and bring them together, right? ”
Matt: “Yeah, absolutely. And that’s the thing. For us, whilst we’ve always had our differences in terms of AFC and Dunstable Town, there’s so much similarities between both clubs and all we’re going to be doing is bringing the best of the best together. And as much as we don’t want to defend fate, what can go wrong, eh?”
