by Peter Scherer
It’s now 72 years since Mickleover Old Boys were originally formed. But after 44 years of Derby Senior League football on their Vicarage Road pitch, Mickleover Sports FC were founded.
The committee had been raising funds for 10 years to enable the new club to progress to it’s current stadium on Station Road.
Originally playing in red and black quartered shirts, the club retained the team colours but changed to a basically red shirt.
On the playing side they progressed through the Central Midlands League, gradually adding extra facilities like floodlights, a grandstand, a pitch perimeter rail.
In 1998/99 they were Central Midlands Champions, moving through the Northern Counties League into the Premier Division, then the Unibond League and the Evostik Northern Premier.
The success on the field and support of the committee and band of volunteers behind the club remain baffled however, as besides the stalwart supporters who have been there through thick and thin, there has been little involvement from the increase in Mickleover’s population, with many new housing developments only a short walk from the teams home ground.
It has been thought that maybe the name itself gave a misleading signal, so this prompted a change of name.
The present football club have now changed it’s name to Mickleover FC, as it was felt that many locals associated the club as a general sports club or even a private club. But by changing the name we are hoping to widen our audience to the whole of the local area, appealing specifically to football enthusiasts,
said Club secretary Tony Shaw.
The newly name MICKLEOVER FC remain a strong community based club though,
We made big strides in the last few years to be a big part of the community, with events such as the Hot August Night, the annual Fireworks night, Sunday Markets, Cinema nights and we will continue to try and grow our support base to progress further,
he added.
Committee member Colin Ford summed things up,
we are now the club of Mickleover and surrounding areas.
So look out for the new club logo as well as the date of the NHS Charity Allstars match and support your own Mickleover football club when we eventually get started in the 2020/2021 season.