Cheadle Town F.C.

Cheadle Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club based in Cheadle, Greater Manchester. They were established in 1961 and joined the North West Counties Football League in 1983. They are currently members of the (the new name of the "old" Division One as of 2008–09). Their home ground is Park Road Stadium.

History

As Grasmere Rovers

Cheadle Town's history can be traced back to 1961 when a 14-year-old boy called Barrie Dean asked his neighbour, Chris Davies, to help his friends form a football team. This team was called Grasmere Rovers after the name of the street that both Dean and Davies lived on (Grasmere Avenue). Chris Davies took on the role of team manager and on 3 September 1961, Grasmere Rovers took to the field for the first time, losing 0–5 to Sutton Boys.

Grasmere started out in the Manchester Junior Football League - a league they would eventually win in the 1967–68 season - playing their games on a Sunday afternoon at The Mellands Playing Fields in Belle Vue. They joined the Manchester League in 1972, allowing them to play their football on the more regular Saturday afternoon. Now under the managerial guidance of Albert Pike, with Chris Davies as chairman and now playing their matches at Surrey Street in Glossop, Grasmere Rovers went from strength-to-strength; the peak of which was the 1979–80 season where they won the Manchester League, the Gilchrist Cup, the Manchester County Amateur Cup and the Derbyshire Junior Cup. In that same season striker Peter Tilley ran in 43 goals.

The team moved to their present-day home of Park Road for the 1982–83 season. Al Sadd were the first ever visitors on Saturday 12 August 1982, running out 4–1 winners on the day. This would be the last season that the team would be known as Grasmere Rovers.

As Cheadle Town

The club joined the North West Counties Football League (NWCFL) for the 1983–84 season as Cheadle Town, under the managerial guidance of Gerry Clewes. They finished their first season a lowly 15th in Division Three but were promoted "by default" at the end of the 1986–87 season when Division Three was incorporated into Division Two.

Cheadle Town have spent most of their NWCFL life in Division Two; 1998 saw the start of a three-year escape from Division Two as the club were promoted to Division One. The club struggled with lowly finishes during their three seasons and were ultimately relegated back to Division Two in 2001 after finishing bottom. They stayed at this level until season 2022/23; the fact that Cheadle Town found themselves in Division One for the start of the 2008–09 season was merely down to a renaming of the NWCFL leagues.

Hopes were high for season 2022/23 following the appointment of Paul Marshall and Steve Yarwood in the close season. Paul brought with him a wealth of experience having played football at a professional level for Manchester City, Blackpool, Port Vale, Aberdeen, Walsall and Rochdale before moving to semi-professional football with FC Halifax Town, Stockport County, Alfreton Town and Curzon Ashton. Whilst Steve Yarwood is well known in the Manchester area having played for Salford City, Mossley, Abbey Hey and Wythenshawe Town.

And what a season 2022/23 was... for the first time in over 20-years Cheadle Town were finally promoted to the top tier of the NWCFL. In a season which saw the Football Club awarded 'Club of the Month' on three separate occasions and break records for unbeaten runs and consecutive victories. The season came down to the lottery of the Play-Offs which saw Cheadle Town defeat Stockport Town 2–0 in the Semi Finals, leading to a Final against Sandbach United. In front of a crowd of 1,375, Cheadle Town won 3–1 with Martin Pilkington confirming victory in injury time to the delight of the travelling supporters. An occasion that will long live in the memories of all involved with Cheadle Town.

Cheadle Town now look forward as they embark on a new era for this Football Club at Step 8 of the football pyramid.

Club colours and badge

Cheadle Town's most common colours were white and black worn in the combination of white shirts, black shorts and black stockings. They have also appeared in a multitude of other colour combinations such as yellow and blue, sky blue and white stripes and also all-red.

As part of the club's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2011 the club decided to revert to the original colours of Grasmere Rovers: green and white.

For the start of the 2018–19 season the club changed its colours once again to red-and-white striped shirts, red shorts and stockings.

The club logo was also changed for the start of the 2018–19 season.

The old badge was taken directly from the coat of arms granted to the Cheadle & Gatley Urban District Council back in December 1955.

Stadium

The Ground Up Solutions Stadium (formerly Park Road Stadium) has an official capacity of 2,000; its record attendance is 1,700 for a friendly match against Stockport County in August 1994. During the 1966 World Cup it was used by the Portugal national team as a training ground and has also had the honour of hosting a soccer school run by Brazilian legend Jairzinho during the summer of 1993.

It has a covered main stand on the west side of the pitch that can seat approximately 250 and contains the changing rooms underneath; the other three sides of the pitch are uncovered and surrounded by nothing more than a railing. Other facilities at the stadium include a clubhouse and a portable building that doubles up as the refreshments kiosk and hospitality room. The ground also includes a 2nd pitch adjacent to the main pitch, which is used by the clubs reserve team and their junior teams.

File:Cheadle Town 1.jpg, The newly branded Ground Up Solutions Stadium Main Stand ahead of season 2024/25
File:ParkRoadMainStandView.jpg, The view from the Main Stand, looking towards the Tennyson Road end
File:ParkRoadClubhouse.jpg, The old clubhouse, demolished in November 2014

In April 2014 the club announced that they had been awarded a £5,000 grant from Capital One as part of the company's Grounds For Improvement competition. This money was used for two new dugouts, a brand-new hard-standing surface directly from the tunnel to the dugout areas and new storage facilities. In the recent months the club has managed to install seats in its main stand and has begun rebuilding its club house after the old structure was demolished in November 2014. A new F.A standard 5 a-side pitch has also been built.

Further work on the stadium took place over the summer of 2018 thanks to the club winning a £50,000 Buildbase bursary. The clubhouse and changing rooms were refurbished and a new external cafe was opened.

Playing squad

.

Players who went on to play for Football League teams

''(club in brackets is the one joined by player after leaving Cheadle Town)''
* Ashley Ward (Crewe Alexandra)
* Dean Crowe ( Stoke City)
* Colin Little (Crewe Alexandra)

Management team

Current management team

Honours

As Grasmere Rovers

*Manchester & District Cup
**Winners 1972–73
*Manchester League Division One
**Winners 1979–80
**Runners-up 1980–81, 1981–82
*Manchester County Amateur Cup
**Winners 1979–80
*Gilchrist Cup
**Winners 1979–80
*Derbyshire Junior Cup
**Winners 1979–80

As Cheadle Town

*Lamot Pils Trophy
**Runners-up 1990–91
*North West Counties Division One Trophy
**Runners-up 1995–96, 2009–10
*Stockport DFA Cup (''the club used the Reserve squad to compete in this tournament'')
**Runners-up 2009–10
**Winners 2012–13, 2016–17

League performances

Records

*Best FA Cup performance: Second Qualifying Round 2007-08 (vs. Dinnington Town F.C.)
*Best FA Vase performance: Third Round 1983-84 (vs. Hucknall Colliery Welfare F.C.) and 2022-23 (vs. A.F.C. Liverpool)
*Record attendance: 3,227 vs F.C. United of Manchester, North West Counties League Second Division, 26 November 2005

Foreign tours

Cheadle Town are famous throughout non-league football for their foreign tours. When abroad the club travels under the name of AFC Manchester and have clocked up over 200,000 airmiles, 96 games in 30 different countries, a total aggregate crowd of 312,000 and 111 goals. Opponents have included seven national teams with the club being the first and only English outfit to play in and against Cuba (in 1975) – a match that was shown on Cuban national television. They have even graced the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, playing to a crowd of 65,000 and met people such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ronnie Biggs and Rajiv Gandhi.

In October 2014 the club played host to the Russian under-19 team as a warm-up for the Russians prior to their game against Northern Ireland. Cheadle lost 0–22.

Link with FC Sports

In December 2017, Cheadle Town F.C. became part of the Little Sports Group. The Little Sports Group founded FC Sports in 2009, consisting of junior football teams from U4's to U16's. In 2013 FC Sports was awarded 'Charter Standard' status by The FA, this kitemark recognises the standards of things such as facilities, coaching, policies and procedures and much more.

References

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RSSSF Football StatisticsCheadle Town at the Football Club History DatabaseTony Kempster's English Football Site

External links

Official SiteThe North West Counties Football League

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Football clubs in England
North West Counties Football League clubs
Football clubs in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport
Association football clubs established in 1961
1961 establishments in England
Cheadle, Greater Manchester