Life in The Football League
Wigan Borough was originally formed as the amateur side Wigan United in 1919. The club was forced to close by the Lancashire FA as they were found guilty of paying their players, which was against rules of the time. A new club was formed and known as Wigan Association for a few weeks during 1920 to avoid confusion with Wigan FC, the town's rugby league club. After this short period the F.A. agreed that all their demands had been met, allowing the club to become officially known as Wigan Borough Football Club. The newly named Wigan Borough applied for entrance to the football league's Third Division North for the 1921–22 season, despite only finishing 17th of 18 clubs in the Lancashire Combination league. Astonishingly, they were, along with Barrow and Accrington Stanley, granted a place for the inaugural season of the competition.
Borough's first match as a league club came against Arsenal in a friendly, which they won 2–1. Their first league match saw them fight back from 1–0 down to win 2–1 against Nelson, but they would go on to finish only 17th of 20 in their début season. They spent ten years at this level before being resigning from the league during the 1931–32 season.
Boro's most successful season came in 1928–29 when they finished fourth in the League. Also that season they reached the Third Round of the FA Cup, the furthest Borough would ever progress in the competition. Though they lost the match against Sheffield Wednesday 3–1, a Springfield Park record 30,443 crowd saw the game.
In 1931, the effects of the Great Depression proved too much and, unable to pay the players' wages any longer, Wigan Borough went out of business. The following year, Wigan's Mayor chaired a public meeting at Queens Hall which resulted in the founding of Wigan Athletic. It would not be until 2 June 1978, however, that Wigan would have a side in the Football League once more.
Read more about this topic: Wigan Borough F.C.
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