League: NPL Premier Division

Whitby Town

Whitby Town Football Club is an English football club based in Whitby, North Yorkshire. The club participates in the Northern Premier League, the seventh tier of English football. Founded in 1880, Whitby are one of the oldest clubs from the North Riding of Yorkshire, the club has spent their entire history in the amateur and semi-professional leagues, though they have reached the second round of the FA Cup in both 1983–84 and 1985–86.

The level which the club are at now is the highest they have been throughout their history, rising up from the lower sections of non-league footballduring the 1990s, winning the Northern Premier League First Division on the way as well as the Northern League Cup six times. However, the formation of the Conference North/South Leagues at step 2 in the non-League pyramid effectively relegated Town back to step 3. Whitby most prestigious honour is arguably the FA Vase, which they won in 1996–97 after defeating North Ferriby United at Wembley Stadium.

Whitby play their home games at the 3,500 capacity Turnbull Ground on Upgang Lane. The club’s colours are somewhat distinct in English footballand are intentionally similar to Italian side Sampdoria[1] wearing a blue shirt with a touch of white, black and red.

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Nantwich Town

Nantwich Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The club was founded in 1884 and is nicknamed The Dabbers, a reference to the town’s tanning industry.[1] The club is currently a member of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, with home matches played at the Weaver Stadium.

Nantwich Town won the FA Vase Final on 6 May 2006. Two goals from Andy Kinsey and one from Stuart Scheuber produced a 3–1 win over Hillingdon Borough at St Andrew’s.

In 1995, in an F.A. Cup preliminary round tie against Droylsden, Andy Locke scored the fastest ever F.A. Cup hat trick. Locke completed his hat trick in 2 minutes 20 seconds. This record still stands for a hat trick in any round of the F.A. Cup, including the preliminary rounds before the First Round Proper.

Nantwich followed up their FA Vase winning season of 2005–06 with another successful campaign in 2006–07 (their last at Jackson Avenue). Finishing 3rd in the North West Counties League Division One they were promoted to the Northern Premier League Division One South for the 2007–08 season and then gained a second consecutive promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

Nantwich also progressed to the Semi-Final stage of the FA Trophy in their 2015-16 campaign, losing 6-4 over two legs to Halifax Town.

Grantham Town

The club was established in August 1874. Grantham’s first match was a 2–1 friendly win against Third Lincs Volunteer Rifles on 29 October 1874. In 1877–78, the club became one of the first to enter the FA Cup, playing at home to Clapham Rovers in front of a gate of 650. On 7 April 2012 the club became champions of the Northern Premier League Division One South.[citation needed]

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Buxton

Buxton Football Club are an English football club based in Buxton, Derbyshire. They were established in 1877 and joined the Combination League in 1891. They then joined the Manchester League in 1899 and won the championship in 1932. They reached the Third Round of the FA Cup in the 1951–52 season. Their patron is the Duke of Devonshire. The club supports and hosts local senior, junior and ladies football. Famous fan is Klava.

They are currently members of the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

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Blyth Spartans

Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is an English football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. The club participates in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football. They are currently managed by Tom Wade.

They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club’s first secretary before forming a practice as a distinguished physician in London’s Harley Street. He thought it appropriate to name the team after the Greek Spartan army in the hope that the players would give their all as they went into “battle” on the field of play. The club is most notable for its 1977–78 FA Cup campaign, in which they went all the way to the 5th round only to be beaten by Wrexham in a replay at St James’ Park.

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Ashton United

The club was originally founded in 1878 as Hurst Football Club and the earliest known match report dates back to a game against Hurst Red Star on 16 March 1879.[2] They originally played in black-and-white stripes and were nicknamed the Lambs.[3] The club first entered the FA Cup in 1883, beating Turton 3–1 in the first round, and then Irwell Springs 3–2 in the second. However, the result was annulled after a protest from Irwell,[4] and it was they who advanced to the third round after Hurst refused to play the replay.[5] In 1885 they won the first edition of the Manchester Senior Cup, beating Newton Heath (now Manchester United) 3–0 in the final.[3] In the same year they reached the second round of the FA Cup again.[4]However, although they defeated Halliwell 3–1, the result was annulled again. Ashton refused to play the replay and Halliwell advanced to the third round.[6]

They joined the Ashton & District League in 1891, but after finishing ninth in the league in the 1891–92 season, it was reported in June 1892 that the club had folded.[2] They were reformed in 1909, and were admitted to the Manchester League as it was expanded from 16 to 18 clubs.[7] In their first season in the league, they finished level on points at the top of the table with Salford United, resulting in a play-off for the championship, which Salford won 2–1.[7][4]

After finishing sixth in 1910–11, Hurst won the title in 1911–12 and subsequently joined Division Two of the Lancashire Combination.[7][8] Although they only finished fifth in 1912–13, they were promoted to Division One of the league for the 1913–14 season. Due to the outbreak of World War I, the club did not compete in 1915–16, but re-entered a wartime edition of the league for the 1916–17 season, winning the title.[9] However, they did not compete during the following season. They resumed in the Lancashire Combination in 1918–19,[9] but switched to the Cheshire County Leaguein 1923.[10] Players started wearing red shirts, earning the club a new nickname – the Robins.[3]

Shortly before World War II, the club signed Dixie Dean, but the outbreak of hostilities limited him to a handful of appearances for the club.[3] Following the war, the club resumed playing in the Cheshire County League for the 1945–46 season,[8] changing their name to Ashton United on 1 February 1947.[4] Despite finishing second bottom of the league in 1946–47, they applied for election to the Football League, but the four Football League clubs were re-elected without a vote being taken.[11] They subsequently rejoined the Lancashire Combination in 1948 and were placed in Division One.[10]

After finishing twelfth in 1960–61, the club resigned from the league in order to apply to rejoin the Cheshire County League; in a ballot, they defeated by Altrincham and Wigan Athletic, and so had to rejoin the Lancashire Combination. However, Division One was now full, so the club had to drop into Division Two,[12] which they won in 1961–62 to earn promotion back to Division One.[10]

In 1964 the club switched to the Midland Counties League, where they played for two seasons before moving back to Division Two of the Lancashire Combination in 1966.[10] Two seasons later, they moved across to the Cheshire County League, where they remained until it merged with the Lancashire Combination to form the North West Counties League in 1982.[10] The club were placed in Division One of the new league, but were relegated to Division Two after finishing second-from-bottom in 1983–84. After winning Division Two in 1987–88 they were promoted back to Division One.

The 1991–92 season saw the club win the Division One title, earning promotion to Division One of the Northern Premier League.[10] They remained in the division until a third-place finish in 2001–02 saw them qualify for the promotion play-offs. After a 3–1 win over Spennymoor United in the semi-finals, a 2–1 win over Bamber Bridge in the final saw them promoted to the Premier Division. During the season, Ashton’s Gareth Morris scored one of the fastest goals in FA Cup history, netting after only four seconds against Skelmersdale United.[13]

With the creation of the Conference North in 2004, a 14th-place finish in 2003–04 saw the club play-off against Hyde United and Bradford Park Avenue for the right to play in the new league. Following a 2–1 win over Hyde, they lost 2–1 to Bradford Park Avenue in the final. However, after Hucknall Town were denied promotion due to ground grading issues, Ashton took their place in the Conference North.[14] The following season saw them finish second-from-bottom, resulting in relegation back to the Northern Premier League’s Premier Division.[10] In 2010 the club were ordered to pay £32,000 to Marcus Hallows after he was injured playing against Ashton for Altrincham.[15]

In 2011 the club won the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup, beating Northwich Victoria 1–0 in the final. After finishing fifth in 2013–14 the club qualified for the promotion play-offs; however, after beating FC United 2–1 after extra time, they lost the final to AFC Fylde on penalties after a 1–1 draw.[16] The 2014–15 season saw a third-place finish, again qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which they lost on penalties to local rivals Curzon Ashton after a 1–1 draw.[17] A third consecutive play-off campaign followed a fourth-place finish in 2015–16, but saw the club lose 3–1 to Salford City in the semi-finals.[18]

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Matlock Town

The club was established in the late 1870s and have competed in the Central Alliance and the Midland Counties League before reaching the Northern Premier League.

In the 1974–75 season the club won the FA Trophy which caused a major celebration in the town; their manager was Peter Swan, and the brothers Mick, Nick and Tom Fenoughty all played in the final. The coach and physiotherapist on that day was Harry Peck who had played for Chesterfield as a professional.

In the 1976–77 season, by then managed by Tom Fenoughty, Matlock reached the 3rd round of the FA Cup, their best performance in the competition. They beat Division Three leaders Mansfield Town and featured in a book “Tividale to Wembley” during this cup run.

In 1978 they won the Northern Premier League Cup for the first time and subsequently played in the Anglo-Italian Cup in the 1978–79 season.

For the 2009–10 season, they are a member of the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

During the 2010–11 season, on 16 October, in an FA Trophy tie at home to Bedworth, Matlock scored 10 goals to progress through to the 2nd Qualifying Round. Ross Hannah scored 7 of the 10 goals in Matlock’s biggest ever competitive home win.

The result equalled the club’s biggest ever competitive win, 10–0 away to Lancaster City in 1975.

Matlock Town F.C. feature in the memoir The Long Road Out of Town by Greg Watts, who supported the club in the 1970s.

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