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Brian Bithell
Brian Bithell (born 5 October 1956) is an English former footballer who played as a defender for Stoke City, Port Vale, Wimbledon, Macclesfield Town, Stafford Rangers, Congleton Town and Rhyl. Career Bithell started his career with Stoke City. He started 16 First Division games in the 1976–77 season, as both Tony Waddington and George Eastham proved unable to lead the "Potters" away from the relegation zone. He never featured in the Second Division, and instead crossed the Potteries divide in September 1977 to spend time on loan with Roy Sproson's Port Vale in the Third Division. He only played two games at Vale Park, before returning to the Victoria Ground the following month. He joined Dario Gradi's Wimbledon in December 1977, featuring in six Fourth Division games towards the end of the 1977–78 season. After leaving Plough Lane he left the Football League, and later played for Macclesfield Town (Northern Premier League), Stafford Rangers (Northern Premier League), ...
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Watford
Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and brewery, breweries. While industry has declined in Watford, its location near London and transport links has attracted several companies to site their headquarters in the town. Cassiobury Park is a public park that was once the manor estate of the Earls of Essex. The town developed next to the River Colne on land belonging to St Albans Abbey. In the 12th century, a charter was granted allowing a market, and the building of St Mary's Church, Watford, St Mary's Church began. The town grew partly due to travellers going to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. A mansion was built at Cassiobury House, Cassiobury in the 16th century. This was partly rebuilt in ...
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Loan (sports)
In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons at a time. A loan fee can be arranged by the parent club as well as them asking to pay a percentage of their wages. Association football Players may be loaned out to other clubs for several reasons. Most commonly, young prospects will be loaned to a club in a lower league in order to gain invaluable first team experience. In this instance, the parent club may continue to pay the player's wages in full or in part. Some clubs put a formal arrangement in place with a feeder club for this purpose, such as Manchester United and Royal Antwerp, Arsenal and Beveren, or Chelsea and Vitesse. In other leagues such as Italy's Serie A, some smaller clubs have a reputation as a "farm club" and regularly take players, especially younger players, on ...
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Middlewich
Middlewich is a town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, east of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,595. Middlewich lies at the confluence of three rivers, the River Dane, Dane, River Croco, Croco and River Wheelock, Wheelock. Three canals also pass through the town, the Shropshire Union Canal, Shropshire Union, Trent and Mersey Canal, Trent and Mersey, and the Wardle Canal, as well as three major roads, the A533 road, A533, A54 road, A54 and A530 road, A530; Middlewich also has good motorway links to the nearby cities of Manchester and Liverpool. The town's population has doubled since 1970 despite a reduction in the number of manufacturing jobs in salt and textile manufacturing, suggesting that many of the new residents live in Middlewich for reasons other than local employment. Since 1990 there have been initiatives to increase the volum ...
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Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the Retail#Global top ten retailers, ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK (where it has a market share of around 28.4%). Tesco has expanded globally since the early 1990s, with operations in 11 other countries in the world. The company pulled out of the US in 2013, but continues to see growth elsewhere. Since the 1960s, Tesco has Diversification (marketing strategy), diversified into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, toys, petrol, software, financial services, Telecommunication, telecoms and internet services. In the 1990s, Tesco re-po ...
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Manager (association Football)
In association football, the manager is the person who runs a football club or a national team. They have wide-ranging responsibilities, including selecting the team, choosing the tactics, recruiting and transferring players, negotiating player contracts, and speaking to the media. The role exists almost exclusively in the British Isles; in other regions its responsibilities are split between a head coach and a director of football. In the 21st century some British clubs adopted a similar split, but often continue to use the title of 'manager' for their head coach. Responsibilities The manager's responsibilities in a professional football club usually include (but are not limited to) the following: * Selecting the team of players for matches, and their formation. * Planning the strategy, and instructing the players on the pitch. * Motivating players before and during a match. * Delegating duties to the first team coach and the coaching and medical staff. * Scouting f ...
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Northern Premier League
The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Division One Midlands (which stand at level 8). Geographically, the league covers all of Northern England and the northern/central areas of the Midlands, and western parts of East Anglia. Originally a single-division competition, a second division was added in 1987–88 Northern Premier League, 1987: Northern Premier League First Division, Division One, and in 2007–08 Northern Premier League, 2007 a third was added when Division One split into two geographic sections - Division One North and Division One South. In 2018 Division One was re-aligned as East and West Divisions, then North West and South East in 2019. On 18 May 2021, the FA restructured the non-League football pyramid and created Division One East, West, and Mid ...
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English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split from it to form the Premier League. The EFL is divided into the Championship, League One and League Two, with 24 clubs in each division, 72 in total, with promotion and relegation between them; the top Championship clubs change places with the lowest-placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two with the top clubs of the National League. Although primarily an English competition, several clubs from Wales – currently Cardiff City, Swansea City and Newport County – also take part. The Football League had a sponsor from the 1983–84 season, and thus was known by various names. For the 2016–17 season, the league rebranded itself as t ...
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Plough Lane (1912–98)
Plough Lane – named The Cherry Red Records Stadium for sponsorship reasons – is a football stadium in Wimbledon, south-west London, which has been the home of AFC Wimbledon since 3 November 2020. A groundshare with rugby league side London Broncos began in 2022. Stands * West Stand – 4,267 capacity * South Stand (safe standing terrace) – 1,092 capacity * East Stand – 2,391 capacity * North Stand (away end) – 1,465 capacity History Wimbledon F.C. played its matches at the original Plough Lane stadium from 1912 until 1991. AFC Wimbledon's new stadium lies approximately 200 yards further east. After 1991 Wimbledon F.C. began a ground-share with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with the intention of moving to a new all-seater stadium elsewhere at a later date due to the original Plough Lane stadium being considered unsuitable for conversion into a modern all-seater stadium. Numerous locations within and beyond the borders of Merton were considered for a possible n ...
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Football League Fourth Division
The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name in 1992, the 4th tier of English football continued as the Football League Third Division, and later became known as Football League Two. History The Fourth Division was created in 1958 alongside a new Third Division by merging the regionalised Third Division North and Third Division South. The original economic reasons for having the two regional leagues had become less apparent and thus it was decided to create two national leagues at levels three and four. The 12 best teams of each regional league in 1957–58 went into the Third Division, and the rest became founder members of the Fourth Division. Founder members of Fourth Division were: * From Third Division North: Barrow, Bradford (Park Avenue), Carlisle United, Chester City, ...
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Dario Gradi
Dario Gradi, MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former amateur football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of the Academy, until October 2019. Gradi played as an amateur for clubs in the London area (and won an England amateur cap); he then took on various coaching roles in the region. His first major managerial success was achieved with Wimbledon after which he briefly managed Crystal Palace in 1981. Gradi had a 24-year first spell as manager of Crewe between 1983 and 2007. He stepped down from his managerial role in 2007, handing first-team responsibilities to Steve Holland, and became technical director. At that time, Gradi was the longest-serving manager of an English football league club.
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Victoria Ground
The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History The Victoria Ground had been Stoke City's home since March 1878 and the first match was a friendly against Talke Rangers on 28 March 1878, Stoke won 1–0 before 2,500 spectators. The ground took its name from the nearby Victoria Hotel and was originally an oval shape, built to accommodate a running track and used by the local athletic club. There was an open grass bank at each end, and a small but compact wooden stand on the east side (Boothen Road) capable of housing 1,000 people. Opposite this stand was another bank which could hold 4,000. The ground remained this way for 30 years during which time Stoke had become members of the Football League. The first league match at the Victoria Ground was on 8 September 1888 and ended in a 2–0 ...
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