Nantwich Town F.C. - History

History

Founded in 1884, Nantwich has a long and proud football tradition. Early years were spent playing friendly and cup matches but in 1891 the club joined the Shropshire & District League, finishing as runners-up in the first season.

Nantwich moved into the stronger Combination the following season and on 15 October 1892 hosted Liverpool in the Merseysiders’ first ever FA Cup match (Liverpool won 4–0). Before World War 1, Nantwich also had spells in a variety of leagues including the North Staffs & District, the Crewe & District, Manchester and Lancashire Combination leagues.

In those early years, the club were honoured to have A.N. Hornby as President. Hornby captained England at rugby and cricket and, as well as being President, turned out for the club on a number of occasions.

After the war, the club became founder members of the Cheshire County League in which they were perennial strugglers, though they did finish 6th in 1921–22. The season before, a record home attendance of 5,121 watched the Dabbers play Winsford United in the Cheshire Senior Cup at their temporary home at Kingsley Fields. Ironically, this is the location where the club is now looking to build a new modern stadium and move to for the 2005–06 season.

Success, though, came in the Cheshire Senior Cup in 1933 when the Dabbers lifted the trophy after beating ICI (Alkali) at the Drill Field, Northwich in front of 8,000 fans. After the Second World War, the Dabbers joined the newly-founded Mid Cheshire League and in 1952, the club entered the inaugural FA Youth Cup competition. Drawn against Manchester United in the second round, the young Dabbers crashed 23–0 on a November evening at the Cliff training ground to a United youth line up including names such as Duncan Edwards, David Pegg, Albert Scanlon and Ron Cope (who joined Nantwich in the twilight of his career).

However, the mid-1960s saw considerable success and in the 1963–64 season the club completed a treble, winning the Mid Cheshire League, League Cup and Cheshire Amateur Cup under Manager Alan Ball (senior).

According to former player the late Mike Brookes: “Mr Ball trained us very hard and taught us techniques that were new to us – or were rusty. He made us think ‘the game’ more. “One ploy was when we were attacking – for me as centre forward to mark the centre half out of the game. The other forwards could still use me for the one–two wall pass to break through. I could still spin off the centre forward to join the attack. I did get a few bruises this way ! “At a corner – the other forwards would move away from the penalty spot, thus taking markers with them. I would be way out on the edge of the penalty box – running in at speed when the corner was taken – hoping the kick (as planned) ended up at head height on the penalty spot. “Mr Ball used the fear factor to keep us ‘on the ball’. He would bring along ‘reputation’ players to training or ‘sign them on’ and have them turn up for matches; so we thought we could be dropped and sometimes we were.”

Nantwich rejoined the Cheshire League in 1968 and in 1976 the Dabbers beat NPL champions Runcorn 5–4 in the Cheshire Senior Cup Final at Gresty Road in front of 2237. Five years later in May 1981 a crowd of 1078 saw Nantwich clinch the Cheshire League by beating eventual runners up Hyde United in the penultimate game of the season 2–1.

1982 saw Nantwich become founder members of the North West Counties League. Unfortunately Nantwich had the unenviable honour of finishing bottom and were relegated to Division 2 where the club remained (except for one season in Division 3 in 1986) until 1989 when the Dabbers were promoted to Division One. Since then, Town have maintained consistent mid-table form. The one exception was in 1993–94 season when they finished in their highest ever NWCFL placing of fourth. However the honours were to come on the cup front in 1994–95 when Nantwich defeated Trafford 1–0 in the League Cup Final on a memorable April evening at Gigg Lane Bury. This success atoned for the disappointment in 1993 when at the same venue Nantwich lost 2–1 to Burscough in another tight final. Ex-Stoke City player Nigel Gleghorn was appointed Manager in November 2001 and he helped steer Nantwich to a top six finish in 2003, when the club also attained the prestigious FA Charter Standard Community Club award.