Rochdale Town Football Club was an association football club based in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, Greater Manchester, England. They played home matches at Castleton Sports Centre, in Castleton, Rochdale, which had a capacity of 1,500. They were originally known as St Gabriels and then Castleton Gabriels, before adopting their final name. The club had a number of nicknames including ''the Angels'', ''the Messengers'', ''the Guardians'', ''the Castlemen'' and ''the Garrison''. They were 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 ...

. The club folded in 2016.

History

The club was founded in Castleton as the church team of St Gabriel & the Angels in 1924, under the name St. Gabriel's F.C. Until the 1960s, the club's players had to be

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and regularly attend both church and

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

. Once these restrictions were lifted, the club began to win regional trophies. They played in the Rochdale Alliance League and moved to their present ground, Butterworth Park, (since renamed as Castleton Sports Centre) in 1979. They joined the

Manchester Football 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 ...

in 1984. In 1990, the club's name was changed to Castleton Gabriels and they joined the

North West Counties Football 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 S ...

Division Two for the 1990–91 season and finished their first season in the league in 11th place. They spent the next few seasons usually finishing in mid-table, with the 1995–96 season seeing the club achieve their highest league place to date, in 4th place. However, the 2000–01 season saw them finish in 17th out of twenty clubs. By the 2003–04 season they finished in last place, 20th, conceding 128 goals. Results did not improve the following season, when they were again in last place, conceding 111 goals. They were not relegated as the league was under-subscribed and there is no direct promotion to or relegation from the league. There were three spare places in Division Two. However, although there are six feeder leagues, none of the clubs that qualified for promotion were able to meet the ground requirements. They came close to being expelled from the league when their ground was deemed not to be of the required standard. They were though allowed to groundshare with

Oldham Town Oldham Borough F.C. was an English association football club based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. The club was founded in 1964 as Oldham Dew F.C., changing their name in 1985 to Oldham Town, again in 2009 to Oldham Boro before making the ...

. After improvement work was done they returned to their home ground in December 2005. The 2005–06 season saw a third consecutive last place, conceding 122 goals, including a 10–2 defeat to

FC United of Manchester Football Club United of Manchester is a semi-professional football club based in Moston, Manchester, England, that competes in the , the seventh tier of the English football league system, and plays home matches at Broadhurst Park. Founded ...

Gigg Lane Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, Gig ...

on 10 December 2005. Their first win did not come until the latter part of the season, a 4–3 home victory over

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

on 28 February 2006. They finished the season on just one point, having had a points deduction for registration irregularities and winning just two games all season. In 2008 Gabriels changed their name to Rochdale Town to try and attract support and sponsors from the wider Rochdale area, rather than just Castleton. They also formed links with the major club of the town,

, who gave their blessing to the name change. They also adopted Rochdale's centenary kit of black and white stripes. Their first home game in the league as Rochdale Town was a 4–5 defeat at the start of the 2008–09 season to the newly formed AFC Liverpool on 16 August 2008. At the end of the 2015–16 season, Rochdale Town were relegated to Step 7 due to ground grading issues. The club appealed against this decision, but the appeal was dismissed. The club then subsequently folded

Attendances

Averages

The average league-game attendance at Castleton Sports Centre for the 2015–16 season was 28, placing Rochdale Town 18th for the division, and was a 31% decrease from the previous season. Past averages: * 2014–15: 27 * 2014–15: 40 * 2013–14: 39 * 2012–13: 34 * 2011–12: 38 * 2010–11: 40 * 2009–10: 33 * 2008–09: 44 * 2007–08: 30 * 2006–07: 37 * 2005–06: 175 * 2004–05: 37 * 2003–04: 31 Source: Tony Kempster's site Non League Matters NW Counties Football League site

Records

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 ...

**Preliminary Round 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2001–02 *

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 ...

**First Round 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 53, 35, 30.80, N, 2, 11, 21.20, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Defunct football clubs in England North West Counties Football League clubs Association football clubs established in 1924 1924 establishments in England Football clubs in Rochdale Defunct football clubs in Greater Manchester Association football clubs disestablished in 2016 Manchester Football League