Non-League and Academy football writer

Kieran Bennett is the chairman and co-founder of Hackney Wanderers FC, who this season (2025/26) will be playing in the Essex Alliance Football League Division One West (step 9 of the non-League pyramid). Ahead of the club’s first ever league match (on Saturday, against Tajik Unity) I interviewed Kieran about Hackney Wanderers, and some of his hopes and aims for the club.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football, prior to founding Hackney Wanderers?

Kieran: I’ve been playing senior football since I was a youngster, whilst I was at Sutton United’s Academy set-up. I did quite well at Sutton, but I was always interested in playing senior football, and I later went on to play in the Essex Alliance Football League, as well as higher up as well. I played for clubs such as Forest Green, and later Tower Hamlets and Grays Athletic. I’ve been involved in football for a long time now, and I’ve seen certain ways in which football clubs are run, and that’s why I wanted to set up my own football club. I’ve always created football teams when I was younger and I’ve also coached in youth football.

Could you talk me through a bit about the newly formed Hackney Wanderers/some of the backstory of the club?

Kieran: We’re founded by a couple of players as well as some family members who have played football at quite a good level. Me and Michael Morgan were both at Sutton United, and we’ve also made appearances at step 7 to step 5. We’ve also got Niall Bennett, who is one of the founders, and he’s also someone who has been on a similar journey in football to us, although injuries have held him back. We’ve also got Gareth Tighe and Joe Bennett, who are coming towards the end of their playing days, but they have a lot of experience. The whole idea of the club really just came about from me and Michael Morgan sitting around one day when we were at Chadwell Heath Spartans. We were thinking that although it’s great to see other teams do well, surely there’s something for us in football, and that we should create our own legacy, as well as something different.

Hackney does have football teams, such as Hackney Wick, Sporting Hackney and now ourselves. But, I wanted to start something else that is different, and really just create certain standards in which remain that way right from the beginning. So I want everyone to be in the right places, and to get everything done quite quickly. We were actually meant to be North East Lions’ reserve side. We were talking to the owner of North East Lions, and he has actually signed for us this season, but unfortunately some things just didn’t work out. We’re a new team, and you can never know in May of June whether you’re going to get a squad of players together.

We took the plunge with Hackney Wanderers. For our first training session we had eight players! But, since getting the squad up to about 15 players, we’ve have a solid squad since then, and it’s just gone from there really.

What are some of your thoughts ahead of your first season (2025/26) in the Essex Alliance Football League (Division One West)?

Kieran: Being really honest, I’ve seen this division as well as this league for years. We’ve got a very good chance of winning this division this season. I’m not saying that we’re guaranteed to win or even gain promotion to step 8 by the end of this season, but we’ll do a good job not to go up. I’m quite confident in the players that we’ve signed, and we’ve got a lot of players who have played at a higher level, but who now want to play football with their friends. So I think that we’ve got a really good chance of doing very well this season, in our debut season as a club.

What are some of your personal hopes and aims for Hackney Wanderers, for this season (the club’s first ever season)?

Kieran: Promotion is the minimum, to be honest. We’ve played against two teams from the Premier Division in pre-season. We held our own in one, and in the other game we beat a well established Premier Division team. So, we want to go for the league title this season, and I also want to have a cup run, regardless of the competition.

Could you talk me through a bit about the management staff at Hackney Wanderers, for this season?

Kieran: Niall Bennett and Joe Bennett are the managers of the team. Then you’ve got myself, and also Gareth Tighe, who will be working with the players as well. So you’ve got a team of four of us, for this season.

Could you talk me through a bit about the design of the Hackney Wanderers club badge?

Kieran: The badge includes the old Hackney town hall on it, which is based in Hackney Central. It’s the heart and centre of Hackney, and growing up it was one of the places to be if you weren’t playing football. So I used to travel through there every day, growing up, and it just felt fitting having it as our club badge. The badge was designed by Michael Morgan, who is one of our co-founders. Our sponsors, Cat & Mutton (they were established in 1729) really like our badge, and they’ve been really supportive to us a club, as well as being really helpful to us.

What are some of your hopes for Hackney Wanderers for the future? Also, what are some of your thoughts ahead of the club’s first league game, against Tajik Unity, this Saturday?

Kieran: Our five year plan as a club is to win the Senior Division, essentially. We want to win promotion to the Senior Division within two years, and then establish ourselves, before looking to dominate that league. It is a tough league with some really good teams in there, but having a team in Hackney there are a lot of great players there, and we hope to get stronger each year. We definitely want to get up to step 6 eventually, and we do have companies who are willing to invest in us the higher that we go. My aim is to see my team play in the FA Vase in the future, and follow the likes of Lymore Gardens, because we want to get this club up to the standard of Lymore Gardens, who are a really well run club.

We went to watch the Changing Lives and Tajik Unity game last Saturday, because they are our next two opponents in the league. They’re a good side, but I think that we have the quality to win that game comfortably, and I hope to also win the game against Changing Lives. Newbury Forest Reserves and Parsonage Leys are some of the teams to watch out for this season, but we’re feeling confident for this season.