26 27 Programme Warrington Town 071126

At the 1961 AGM, it was decided to change the clubs name to Warrington Town, and in 1965, the club moved to their present home in Latchford. A neat, compact stadium with a capacity of around 3,500 the ground is on the banks of the Manchester Ship canal in the shadow of the imposing Cantilever Bridge which dominates the areas skyline, and from which the ground now takes its name.

The late sixties and early seventies were mostly spent in the doldrums, and the club continued without success until the formation of the North West Counties League in 1982 proved to be a springboard to start to move up the pyramid. Originally placed in the third division of the new league, Town immediately gained promotion as runners up, and quickly established themselves as one of the second divisions most powerful clubs, missing out on promotion by small margins on no fewer than three occasions.

1985-86 saw Town’s first serious attempt at winning the F.A. Vase, but following a tremendous run, they bowed out to eventual winners Halesowen Town in an epic semi-final replay at Bucks Park, home of Telford United. Promotion to division one of the NWCL was achieved in 1986-87 and the club again excelled in the F.A Vase, making it all the way to Wembley sadly losing 3-2 to local rivals St Helens Town in the final.

Promotion to the Northern Premier League was gained in 1989-90 as champions of the North West Counties League. The club had consistency in the new division with three 7th place and a 5th place finish, but relatively little success until 1992-93 when a fantastic FA Trophy run ended in the quarter finals at Sutton United, earning them a cool £5,000 for being the furthest non-exempt team left in the competition. On the way to Sutton, Town had beaten Conference side Merthyr Tydfil, which earned them a team of the round prize. In the Cheshire Senior Cup, they were victorious at Macclesfield Town and Hyde United on the way to a Semi Final Place, while in the League Cup, they went one further becoming the first ever Division One Side to reach the final, in front of a large crowd at Maine Road. Town matched Premier League runners up Winsford United all the way, but Winsford took the trophy home following a penalty shoot out. To cap the clubs most successful season ever, Neil Whalley equaled the NPL transfer fee record when he moved to third division side Preston North End for £25,000 and just a few weeks later Liam Watson shattered the fee record, also moving to Deepdale for a staggering £60,000. Town were named “Team Talk Magazine” team of the year 1992-93.

A high number of injuries together with problems behind the scenes and a disappointing lack of goals in 1993-94 hindered the team, although we did reach the semi final of the Cheshire Senior Cup, beating conference side Witton Albion on the way, and were in with a chance of promotion until the last few weeks of the season.

The 1994-95 season was another successful year for Town, who made it into the draw for the F.A. Cup First Round Proper for the first time ever, a last gasp equaliser at Hyde United forcing a replay. The winners of the tie would entertain Darlington but sadly Town failed to make the first round proper, as Hyde won the replay 2-0. Town also took Chorley to a replay in the league cup, having beaten Barrow along the way, but once their interest in that competition was over the club were able to focus on their main aim of the season, namely promotion to the Premier Division. An amazing run saw them win eleven games of their last fifteen, but this was not quite good enough. Town finished in third place, missing out on promotion by just one point.

Major problems behind the scenes over the close season resulted in the management team and most of the players moving to Curzon Ashton, and a completely new-look Town side lined up to face Alfreton for the first game of the 1995-96 season. Town lost 5-1, but new boss Tommy Lawson turned things around, and by Christmas, Town were once more a match for anybody, finishing in mid table. The close season 1996 saw yet another change of management as Tommy left for pastures new to be replaced by Alan Lord. Unfortunately, the partnership split just before Christmas and Simon Rudge came back and brought Ray Birch as his assistant. The change came too late to save Town from relegation, but the run did show some promise.

Financial problems both on and off the pitch beset Town in 1996-97 and a new committee was formed under Chairman Harry Boden & Steve Jones. Relegation to the NWCFL Div 1 was followed by demotion on ground grading criteria to Division 2 and a rationalisation of the club’s finances coupled with the appointment of Dave Hughes as Football Manager & Ian Dick as his secretary saw Town’s image improve dramatically. Sadly, though Ian had to return to Scotland for personal reasons, and Dave stepped down to assistant manager, with Alan Blair becoming manager.

The 99/00 season saw Town win the Second Division Trophy beating Tetley Walker 2-0 at Prescot Cables. In 2000/01 Warrington won the Second Division title to return to Division One of the North West Counties League. Town finished 16th in their second season back in Div 1 and Alan Blair stepped down, Glenn Walker & Derek Brownbill took over to see Town finish 5th in the league and gain promotion back into the UniBond NPL Division One after the league restructuring process had taken place (Conference North was created).

For the first five seasons in the UniBond (Northern Premier) League Town found life fairly difficult finishing each season in the bottom half of the table, which included a couple of close scrapes avoiding relegation. The period was not entirely without success though as we won the NPL Fair Play Award, numerous programme awards, youth team championships and cup win’s for the reserves. We also had a four-figure home attendance against Liverpool in the Senior Cup and reached the third qualifying round of the FA Cup. A number of managers came and went in this time, namely Glenn Walker in sole control, Ian Street and Paul Moore. When the North South split came for Division One Town spent one season in the south in 2007/2008 before moving to the north. In season 2008/09 ex Town favourite Joey Dunn took over as team manager and gradually things started to improve. 2009/10 saw Town record their highest finish in the NPL since the mid 1990’s when ninth place was secured. Off the field the club continued to prosper under the leadership of a new board of directors headed by Gary Skentelbery 2010/11 saw us spend most of the season on the fringe of a play-off position. However, a disappointing last few games saw us drop away and even lost sixth place which had been occupied for the last three months of the season, bar the final game, finally finishing ninth once more. In the close season superb new 3G five a side facilities were added.

The 20011/12 season saw us threaten to take a play off position up until mid March when we slipped off the pace in a matter of one week. This resulted in the management team of Joey Dunn and Stuart Humphreys being replaced by Shaun Reid and former player Lee Smith. 2012/13 saw Shaun start to rebuild the squad and although success was hoped for it never really came to fruition and the season became a transitional one. 2013/14 saw a marked improvement in league form. Despite losing the two opening games Town then went on a long unbeaten run. A top five place was reached by the fourth Saturday of the season and from thereon was never relinquished. A good number of weeks were spent on top of the table, but we eventually finished third, claiming a record number of wins (27) and points (87). Sadly, promotion was not to be after a 1-0 play-off semi final defeat at home to Bamber Bridge meant we would start 2014/2015 still in Evo-Stik Division One North. The 2014/15 season commenced with the adoption of a new club crest designed by Tom Greaves; it being chosen as a competition winner to replace the long-standing old town coat of arms motif. The club made huge steps forward in publicity terms in 2014 reaching the FA Cup First Round Proper for the first time in our history. We were rewarded with a home draw against Football League club Exeter City that was shown live on BBC2 across the nation. We served up a cracker of a match and one that epitomised everything we love about the FA Cup as Town amazingly defeated our Football League opponents 1-0, thanks to a Craig Robinson header after just seven minutes. What an amazing evening. We went on to play Gateshead in Round Two in what was our ninth match in the competition all told, this time live on BT Sports, but sadly the adventure ended there as we lost 2-0. Gateshead went on to play away to West Bromwich Albion. It had been a fantastic adventure that will live long in the memory. The cup success did have an effect on our league campaign as games in hand could not be turned into sufficient points and we finished the season in ninth. However, the season was nicely rounded off with a Doodson Sports Cup Final win over Farsley at Stockport County’s ground. Twenty years after our first final appearance in this competition also saw the game decided on penalties, but this time we won, the score being 3-2 after the game had ended 0-0 after ninety minutes. Town started the 2015/16 slowly but it did not last long, and we led the table on a couple of occasions before returning there early in 2016 and opening a gap on our only challengers Northwich Victoria. However, on learning that his contract would not be renewed at the season’s end, manager Shaun Reid decided to leave the club in February 2016. Assistants Stuart Mellish and Lee Smith took charge following Shaun’s departure. The good form was just as consistent, and Town opened up a substantial lead firstly on Northwich and latterly on Spennymoor Town. The lead would not be relinquished, and Town won the championship on 16th April with two games still to play following a 6-1 thrashing of Prescot Cables in front of 1411 spectators and which took us up to 100 league points, a club record. The final two games were also won to see us finish on 106 points and score in every league game through the season. We also registered the most wins and goals scored in a season. It was without doubt the finest moment in the club’s history to that point.

Life in the Premier Division brought mixed fortunes and inconsistency led to the management duo of Stuart Mellish & Lee Smith leaving the club by mutual consent in mid-October. Paul Carden was appointed as manager at the end of October with former player Mark Beesley as coach and Craig Robinson as assistant manager. The side settled down well after new year and a very consistent run saw us climb into a play off place. We were in with a chance right up until the final couple of games but finished on a run of draws to end in tenth position.

2017/18 proved to a busy season for Town if ultimately without silverware. A consistent league campaign saw us occupy a play off place for all bar two Saturday’s throughout the season. The runners-up position was ours from 17th February through to the final match when unfortunately, we were pipped by Ashton United on goal difference and ended in third place. Still our best ever finish. Sadly, we would lose our play-off semi-final at home to Grantham Town. The FA Trophy saw us play in ten matches all told, eventually being highly unlucky to exit in round three away to Wealdstone, having defeated National League Ebbsfleet United in the previous round.

2018/19 proved a memorable season for Town and although in any other season we would have gained promotion that reward was denied at the last. Having performed consistently all season, and the opening two weeks aside, occupying at least a play-off position all season, including topping the table on three different occasions we had to settle for third place in the end. Play-off wins at home to Nantwich Town (4-1) and at South Shields (2-1) set up a Super Play-off Final at home to Kings Lynn Town. We led 2-1 with five minutes to go but conceded a penalty which was converted. In extra time Kings Lynn got the winner again with five minutes remaining. The game attracted a season best attendance of 2200. Town also made the draw for the FA Cup First Round Proper again but unfortunately lost out in a 4Q replay at FC Halifax Town. Season 2019/20 saw Town compete at the top end of the table if not quite as consistently as the previous season. We sold star midfielder Ben Garrity to Football League club Blackpool FC where he signed a full-time contract, the first such occurrence since the mid 1990’s Town could say that. We were well placed in third in mid-March 2020 when everything stopped due to Coronavirus. The season was deemed null and void with no promotion or relegation. 2020/2021 went the same way for the same reason with Town again in third place, but this time with just nine games played. Town manager Paul Carden left the club for the manager’s position at AFC Telford United in late November 2021, leaving the club in sixth position in the table. Paul was at the club for five seasons. Town appointed assistant manager Mark Beesley to the managers shortly after. It was a deserved reward and gave the club some continuity. Mark did a fine job and after hovering just either side of the play-off line, from mid-February on we never relinquished a play-off position at the end of each week. The final game of the season saw us lose at Matlock Town and so dropped from third to fifth. It resulted in an away play-off to old friends in this situation, South Shields. Town upset the form book winning there 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. The final saw us away to Scarborough Athletic and it an open but incredibly tense final Town once again lost out at the final hurdle, Scarborough winning 2-1. Matt Grivosti, a regular through the season signed professional terms with Bolton Wanderers following the season’s finale. The 2022/23 season started well enough with Town among the early front runners but as summer waned and autumn took over we lost some consistency for a while. However, from 26th November through to the end of the season, we lost just once in twenty six games and went unbeaten for twenty four of those. We ended in a highest ever second place finish with our only defeat in that run away to champions South Shields. Town once again faced the play-off’s but this time would be guaranteed home advantage in both semi and final. Matlock Town were played off the park in the semi final first half, a rampant Town scoring four without reply. It ended 4-1. The final v Bamber Bridge was far more tense with Brig doing their best to stop Town from playing their flowing football. Chances were at a premium yet for all that the time seemed to be gone in a flash. We were reduced to ten men with ten to go but were not fazed. As we approached ninety minutes a throw in was flicked on by Jay Harris and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts hooked the ball just beyond the diving Brig keeper to score and send the vast majority of the 2550 capacity crowd ecstatic. Additional time saw Brig push but in truth Town looked more likely to increase their lead, but one was enough and at last Town gained a much-deserved promotion. Much celebrating was evident that day. Warrington Town were now in the Vanarama National League North for the first time. Season 2023/24 brought a number of challenges, the first being to cope at the higher level. This was achieved with relative comfort, Town closer to a play off position than the other end of the table. We finished in twelfth place, so just the top half of the table. Off the field it was ground improvements that were required, and these too were achieved. A new stand, new terracing, new away end facilities and after much effort were the result, the ground capacity was increased, and full segregation was possible when required. After a sluggish start manager Mark Beesley stepped down and was replaced by Paul Carden, making a return to the club after a few seasons away. Sadly, Paul was unable to reverse the club’s fortunes and by January we had dropped into a relegation place that we would not recover from. We finished in 23rd place and returned to the Northern Premier League.