Bamber Bridge Football Club is a football club based in

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is an urban 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". The population was 13,945 at ...

, near

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium. The club is fully owned by a community organisation that represents supporters of the club.

History

A Bamber Bridge club played in the late 19th century, but the modern club was established in 1952.Club History
Bamber Bridge F.C. The new club joined the Preston & District League, progressing to the Senior Division. In 1974 they merged with Walton-le-Dale, continuing in the Preston & District League. They went on to win the league's Guildhall Cup in 1978–79, before completing a Premier Division and cup double in 1980–81. After winning the Lancashire FA Amateur Shield in 1981–82 and another Guildhall Cup win in 1984–85, they won back-to-back Premier Division titles in the next two seasons, before winning a league and cup double in 1989–90. In 1990 Bamber Bridge moved up to Division Two of the

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

. Their second season in the league saw them win the division, resulting in promotion to Division One; they also reached the semi-finals of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footb ...

, where they lost 2–0 to

Wimborne Town Wimborne Town Football Club is a football club based in Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England. They were established in 1878 and won the FA Vase in 1992. They reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup in the 1982–83 season for the first t ...

. After finishing as runners-up in Division One in the following season (

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

), a second successive promotion was achieved when the club moved up to Division One of the

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 ...

. In 1994–95, a second-place finish saw Bamber Bridge promoted to the Premier Division, with the club also winning the league's Challenge Cup in their first season in the league and victory in the final of the

Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy The Lancashire Football Association Challenge Trophy is an English football competition for senior non-league clubs who are members of the Lancashire County Football Association. The trophy was first played for in 1885, when it was known as the ...

. The following season they won the Premier Division, which would have usually resulted in promotion to the

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called th ...

. However, Irongate was not deemed up to standard for the fifth tier, and the club remained in the Northern Premier League, In 1999–2000 Bamber Bridge reached the first round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

for the first time. After beating St Albans City 2–0, they lost 1–0 at

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

in the second round. The club remained in the Premier Division until the end of the 2001–02 season, in which they finished bottom; although they beat

Radcliffe Borough Radcliffe Football Club (formerly Radcliffe Borough) is an English football club based in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester where they play their games at Stainton Park. The club was formed on 24 May 1949 and currently plays in the Northern Premier L ...

3–2 in the promotion/relegation play-off semi-final, they were beaten 2–1 by

Ashton United Ashton United Football Club is a football club in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of and play at Hurst Cross. History The club was founded in 1878 as Hurst Football Club and the earliest known match ...

in the final. Although Bamber Bridge returned to the Premier Division as a result of league restructuring following the creation of the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sys ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, their stay was short-lived as they were relegated to Division One at the end of the 2004–05 season. However, the season did see them win the President's Cup. When the league added a third division in 2007, the club were placed in Division One North. A fourth-place finish in 2013–14 saw Bamber Bridge qualify for the promotion play-offs. After beating

Warrington Town Warrington Town Football Club is an association football club based in Warrington, Cheshire. They were established in 1949 under the name of Stockton Heath, adopting their current name in 1961. They currently compete in and play at Cantilever P ...

1–0 in the semi-finals, they lost 3–2 to

Ramsbottom United Ramsbottom United Football Club are an English football club based in Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester. Nicknamed "The Rams", they currently compete in the and play their home matches at the Harry Williams Riverside Stadium, Acrebottom, Ramsb ...

in the final. In the following season they finished third, again qualifying for the play-offs, this time losing 2–0 to

Darlington 1883 Darlington Football Club is an association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League North, at the sixth tier of English football. The club was founded in ...

in the final after beating

Northwich Victoria {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

2–1 in the semi-final. A fourth-place finish in 2017–18 saw the club reach the play-offs, in which they defeated

Tadcaster Albion Tadcaster Albion Association Football Club is an association football club in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England. Formed in 1892, their ground is situated behind the John Smith's brewery in Tadcaster, thus the reason for their nickname "The Br ...

2–1 in the semi-finals and

Prescot Cables Prescot Cables Football Club is a supporter-owned football club based in Prescot, Merseyside. It was established in 1884 and has also been known as Prescot and Prescot Town. They compete in the and play their home games at Valerie Park. They ...

1–0 in the final to earn promotion to the Premier Division.

Ground

Following the 1974 merger, the club played at the King George's Playing Field. In 1983 they purchased a plot of derelict land to build their own ground, with the name Irongate taken from the local area. The first game was played in August 1987.History
Bamber Bridge F.C. The ground was officially named the Sir

Tom Finney Sir Thomas Finney (5 April 1922 – 14 February 2014) was an English international footballer who played from 1946 to 1960 as a winger or centre forward for Preston North End and England. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of the spor ...

Stadium after Finney's death in 2014. It currently has a capacity of 3,000, of which 554 is seated and 800 covered. The record attendance of 2,300 was set for a friendly match against the Czech Republic national team shortly before

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

, as the Czechs were using Irongate as a training ground; the result was a 9–1 win for the Czechs.FA Cup: Pilsners and Patrik Berger at Bamber Bridge
BBC Sport, 9 October 2015 The ground has also hosted the home games of the Preston North End women's team and is currently the home of Blackburn Rovers Ladies.Ladies to play at Bamber Bridge
Blackburn Rovers, 12 July 2016

Honours

*Northern Premier League **Premier Division champions 1995–96 **Challenge Cup winners 1994–94 **President's Cup winners 2004–05 *North West Counties League **Division Two champions 1991–92 *Preston and District League **Premier Division champions 1980–81, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1989–90 **Guildhall Cup winners 1978–79, 1980–81, 1984–85, 1989–90 *Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy **Winners 1994–95 *Lancashire FA Amateur Shield **Winners 1981–82 *Lancastrian Brigade Cup **Winners 1976–77, 1989–90, 1990–91 *Lytham Medal Competition **Winners 1975–76

Records

*Best league position: First in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, 1995–96 *Best

performance: Second round, 1999–2000 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: Second round, 1994–95, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000 *Best

performance: Semi-finals, 1991–92 *Record attendance: 2,300 vs

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

, friendly, 1996 *Record transfer fee received: £15,000 from

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 193 ...

for Tony Black, 1995 *Record transfer fee paid: £10,000 to

Horwich RMI Horwich ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Prior to 1974 in the historic county of Lancashire. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest of Manchester. It ...

for Mark Edwards

References

External links