Warrington Town Football Club is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

, Cheshire. They were established in 1949 under the name of Stockton Heath, adopting their current name in 1961. They currently compete in the and play at Cantilever Park.

Club history

First 50 years

Formed in 1949 by Jimmy Drinkwater, the club was initially named Stockton Heath Albion and competed in the Warrington and District League until 1953, when they moved to the

Mid Cheshire League The Cheshire Association Football League is a association football, football competition based in Cheshire, England, which until 2007 was known as the Mid-Cheshire Association Football League. From season 2017–18, the league operates four di ...

. Freddie Worrall became manager at the same time, and during a 13-year spell in charge, the club won the league in 1959–60 plus the League Cup in three consecutive seasons during the 1950s. During his thirteen years at the helm, Heath were one of the most feared sides in Cheshire football, winning a string of honours including the Mid Cheshire League Championship in 1959–60, the League Cup in 1953–54, 1954–55, 1955–56 and made several appearances in the Cheshire Amateur Cup Final. Several players from this successful period went on to join

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

clubs, including Ian Weir,

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, Alan Foster and

Roger Hunt Roger Hunt (20 July 1938 – 27 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Eleven years with Liverpool, he was the club's record goalscorer with 285 goals until being overtaken by Ian Rush. Nonetheless, H ...

, later a

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winner with

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in 1966. At the club's 1961 AGM, it was decided to change the name to Warrington Town. In 1978 the club were founder members of Division Two of the

Cheshire County League The Cheshire County League was a football league founded in the north west of England in 1919, drawing its teams largely from Cheshire, surrounding English counties and North Wales. Initially the league was dominated by the reserve teams of Fo ...

. When it merged into the

North West Counties Football League The North West Counties Football League is a association football, football league in the North West England, North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, ...

in 1982, the club were founder members of Division Three. They finished as runners-up in the first season, earning promotion to Division Two. In 1985–86 Warrington reached the semi-finals of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

, losing 6–3 to Halesowen Town in a replay. After finishing as runners-up in Division Two in 1986–87, the club were promoted to Division One. In the same season they reached the FA Vase final, where they lost 3–2 to local rivals St Helens Town In 1989–90 Warrington Town won Division One, and were promoted to the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

. In 1992–93 they reached the quarter-finals of the

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, eventually losing 2–1 at Sutton United, and also became the first Division One club to reach the final of the League Cup, losing on penalties to Winsford United. The season also saw the club sell Neil Whalley to Football League Third Division side Preston North End for £25,000, equalling the record fee paid for a Northern Premier League player. A few weeks later Warrington also sold Liam Watson to Preston for a record £60,000. After finishing second bottom of the league in 1996–97, the club were relegated back to Division One of the North West Counties League. The following season they were demoted, failing ground grading. In the 1998–99 season, teenage striker Damien Whitehead set a new club record of 52 goals in just 42 appearances, before signing for Football League Division Three side Macclesfield Town at the end of the season.

21st century

The 1999–2000 season saw Town win the Second Division Trophy beating Tetley Walker 2–0 at Prescot Cables, with two goals from Neal Holden. The following season they won Division Two and were promoted back to Division One. They finished fifth in 2003–04, and were moved to Division One of the

as part of the restructuring that led to the creation of the

Conference North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 o ...

and

Conference South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 of the NLS and sixth-highest ti ...

. When Division One was split into northern and southern sections in 2007, the club were placed in the southern division, but were moved to the northern section the following season. In 2013–14 the club finished third in Division One North, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, where, they lost 1–0 at home to

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is a large village in Lancashire, England, south-east of Preston, in the borough of South Ribble. The name derives from the Old English "bēam" and "brycg", which probably means "tree-trunk bridge". People who live in Bamber Bri ...

in the semi-finals. Former Director of Football, Toby Macormac, became the new club chairman and took the club from strength to strength and started by reaching the first round proper of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

for the first time in their history in 2014–15, where they beat League Two club

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

1–0 with a 7th-minute header from Craig Robinson, in a giant-killing at Cantilever Park shown live on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

. In the second round they lost 0–2 at

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

, televised live on

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. Later in the season the club lifted its first trophy in 14 years by defeating Farsley Celtic on penalties in the final of the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup, held at

Edgeley Park Edgeley Park is a association football, football stadium in Edgeley, Stockport, England. Built for Stockport RFC, a rugby league club, in 1891, by 1903 the rugby club was defunct and Stockport County F.C., Stockport County Football Club moved i ...

. During the 2015–16 season the club set many new club records including scoring over 100 league goals and also winning over 30 league games in one season. Attendances at the club increased with a seasons average of 418 per game, including two crowds of over 1,000 for the games against Northwich Victoria and Prescot Cables. The Club Chairman decided to part company with manager Shaun Reid by mutual consent in February 2016, replacing him with Stuart Mellish and Lee Smith. Mellish and Smith led Town to the league title, finishing 15 points clear and setting division records of 106 points and 121 goals scored, and gaining promotion to Northern Premier League Premier Division. Team captain Ciaran Kilheeney was the top scorer in all 3 NPL divisions with 37 league goals, and he, James McCarten and goalkeeper Karl Wills were named in the NPL Division One North team of the season.

NPL Premier Division

At level seven in the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the ...

, the Northern Premier League Premier Division was the highest level that Warrington had ever reached. After 16 games of the 2016–17 season, while sixth in the table, management duo of Stuart Mellish and Lee Smith left by mutual consent and Chairman Macornac brought in Paul Carden. Carden lead the team to a tenth-place finish in their first season in the division. In the 2017–18 Northern Premier League season Warrington improved on the previous campaign and ended up with a highest ever finish of third in the NPL Premier Division qualifying them for the play-offs, where they lost in a home semi-final against Grantham Town. They followed this up in 2018–19 with another third-placed finish, in a season made more complicated by the expulsion of North Ferriby United who went out of business partway through the campaign. In the play-offs Warrington beat Nantwich Town 4–1 in a home semi-final, and then won 2–1 against

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...

in the final. Normally this would have resulted in promotion to

National League North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National League (English footb ...

. However, as a one-off for the 2018–19 season, Town had to play a "super playoff" game against the play-off winners of the newly-formed Southern League Premier Central Division. In this game Warrington lost 3–2 to King's Lynn Town after extra time, and they remained in the Northern Premier League Premier Division for the 2019–20 season. As a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the 2019–20 season was formally abandoned in March 2020, with all results from the season being expunged. After another abandoned season in 2020–21 and a play-off final defeat in 2021–22, it took more investment from the chairman which ensured Warrington finished the 2022–23 season as runners-up and were promoted to the

for the first time in club history, beating

1–0 in the play-off final at Cantilever Park.

Current squad

Ground

The club played firstly at Stockton Lane in Stockton Heath in 1949, arriving at London Road in 1950, then moving to its first ground on Loushers lane (the Cheshire Police Ground) in 1953, returning to further down Stockton Lane in Grappenhall in 1955. The following year, the club moved to Cantilever Park, which had a capacity of 2,500 as of November 2014. It takes its name from the Cantilever Bridge, a high-level road bridge on Ackers Road over the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West England, North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary at Eastham, Merseyside, Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it ...

that towers over the ground to the east. The ground itself is on the northern bank of the canal. The ground consists of four stands, two of which are seated.

Honours

*Northern Premier League **Northern Premier League play-off winners:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

**Northern Premier League Division One North Champions: 2015–16 *Northern Premier League Challenge Cup **Winners: 2014–15 *North West Counties League **Division One Champions: 1989–90 **Division Two Champions: 2000–01 **Division Two Trophy winners: 1999–2000 **League Cup winners: 1989–90 **League Shield winners: 1985–86 *Mid-Cheshire League **Champions: 1960–61 **League Cup Winners: 1953–54, 1954–55, 1955–56 *Northern Combination Cup **Winners: 1989–90 *Altrincham Cup **Winners: 1954–55 *Runcorn Challenge Cup **Winners: 1965–66, 1966–67, 1968–69 *Warrington Guardian Challenge Cup **Winners: 1980–81, 1994–95 *Raab Karcher Cup **Winners: 1987–88

Records

**Second round: 2014–15 *

**Quarter-finals 1992–93 *

**Runners-up 1986–87 *Record attendance: 2,550 v

- Premier Division, play-off final, 1 May 2023

References

External links

Official WebsiteLocal Sports PaperLocal Online Newspaper
{{coord, 53, 22, 37.290, N, 2, 34, 11.741, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Northern Premier League clubs Sport in Warrington Association football clubs established in 1949 Football clubs in Cheshire 1949 establishments in England North West Counties Football League clubs Cheshire County League clubs National League (English football) clubs