Ashton Athletic Football Club is a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club based in
Ashton-in-Makerfield, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of the and play at Brocstedes Park. They are full members of the
Lancashire County Football Association
The Lancashire County Football Association, also known simply as the Lancashire FA, is the governing body of football within the historical county boundaries of Lancashire, England. They are responsible for the governance and development of foot ...
.
History
The club was formed in 1968, initially as a
Sunday league club playing in the Wigan Sunday League.
[Club history]
Ashton Athletic F.C. After winning every division in the league in successive seasons, they switched to playing Saturday football, joining the
Warrington & District League.
[
Success in the Warrington League saw the club join the Lancashire Combination in 1978.][ When the league merged with 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 Footba ...
to form the North West Counties League in 1982, Ashton were placed in Division Three, which they finished bottom of in both 1982–83 and 1983–84. After a fourteenth-place finish in 1984–85, they finished bottom of the table again in 1985–86.[
At the end of the season the club were expelled from the league due to Brocstedes Park failing to meet the ground grading criteria.][ They subsequently dropped into Division One of the ]Manchester League
The Manchester Football League is a football league in England, affiliated with Manchester FA, covering a 30-mile radius from Manchester Town Hall. It was formed in 1893, although play ceased between 1912 and 1920. Currently it consists of fiv ...
.[ They continued to struggle in the Manchester League, with several lower-half finishes before finishing bottom of Division One in 1989–90. They finished bottom again in 1994–95,][The Manchester League 1994–2011]
Non-League Matters
The 2005–06 season saw them finish fourth in Division One, and after applying for rejoin the North West Counties League following improvements to Brocstedes Park, the club were accepted into Division Two,[ bypassing the Premier Division of the Manchester League. In 2007–08 a third-place finish saw them promoted to the renamed Premier Division of the league.][ Although they finished bottom of the division in ]2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
, they were reprieved from relegation after New Mills were promoted from the division and Formby were relegated due to a breach of the rules. In 2013–14 they won the Challenge Cup, defeating Maine Road 1–0 in the final. The 2016–17 season saw them win 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 L ...
with a 2–1 win over Radcliffe Borough in the final.
Honours
*North West Counties League
**Challenge Cup winners 2013–14
*Atherton Charity Cup
**Winners 2006–07
*Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy
**Winners 2016–17
Records
*Best 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 competi ...
performance: Third qualifying round, 2017–18[
*Best ]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 footbal ...
performance: Third round, 2017–18[
*Record attendance: 610 vs ]Chorley
Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...
, FA Cup third qualifying round, 30 September 2017Ashton Athletic: Info
North West Counties League
See also
* Ashton Athletic F.C. players
References
External links
*
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Football clubs in England
Football clubs in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
Association football clubs established in 1968
1968 establishments in England
Ashton-in-Makerfield
Warrington & District Football League
Lancashire Combination
North West Counties Football League clubs
Manchester Football League