Saltney Town 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 within the town of

Saltney Saltney is a cross-border town, split between Flintshire, Wales and Cheshire, England. The town is intersected by the England–Wales border, with its larger part being a community of Wales in the historic county of Clwyd. The town forms par ...

, on the border between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. They play in the

Ardal Leagues The Ardal Leagues are a football league in Wales. The word "ardal" translates as "district" in English, with Wales split into four regions at this level. They have clubs with amateur/semi-professional status and sit at the third level of the Wels ...

North West, which is at tier 3 of the Welsh football pyramid.

History

The first record of a Saltney-based football club was in 1908 when they joined

The Combination The Combination was a league during the early days of English football. It had two incarnations; the first ran only for the 1888–89 season for teams across the Northern England and the Midlands, and was wound up before completion. The second ...

. The Combination was originally composed from clubs from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and their environment. In later years, several Welsh clubs joined. One club,

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 ...

, earned admission to the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

as members of The Combination. This League ran from 1890-1911. Saltney had a fantastic first season in the league finishing in 2nd place,

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

finished 3rd! We are uncertain on what happened after the league disbanded in 1911. In the 1919-20 season, Saltney-based side Crichton’s Athletic was a founder member of

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 ...

. In 1921, the side changed their name to Saltney Athletic. In 1923, the side finished in 6th position before leaving the Cheshire County League. The history becomes a little hazy from then until the 1974-75 season when Saltney Social became founder members of

Clwyd Football League The Clwyd Football League was a football league formed in 1974 as an amalgamation of the Dyserth League and the Halkyn Mountain League. The top division was at different periods at the second, third and fourth levels of the Welsh football leagu ...

, where they played for two seasons. For the 1991-92 season, Saltney Community Centre was formed. They entered the Clwyd League system in Division 1. A great start resulted in a 3rd play finish and instant promotion to the prestigious Clwyd Premier Division. In their first effort at the Clwyd top flight they finished in a very respectable 2nd place before going one better the following year, winning the League and being duly promoted to the

Welsh Alliance League The Welsh Alliance Football League (formerly the ''Lock Stock Welsh Alliance Football League'', for sponsorship reasons) was a football league formed in 1984, and discontinued in 2020 following the reorganisation of the Welsh football pyramid for ...

. In their two seasons in the league they finished in 6th, then 11th positions before resigning from the Alliance in 1998. The current club was formed in 2010 by two friends from the Saltney area, Marc Edwards and Andrew Johnson. Both have the ultimate vision of bringing their community together through football. The club are also known by their nickname of "The Bordermen", due to where they are situated. In their debut season, the Bordermen were victorious in both the League Cup, and the prestigious Horace Wynne Cup, beating Llanuwchlyn and Castell Alun in the respective finals. They also finished 3rd in their league, Welsh National Division 1.

Honours

* League Cup :Winners (1): 2010-11 * North East Wales FA Junior (Horace Wynne) Cup :Winners (3): 1991–92, 1992–93
2010-11

References

Notes

Information compiled with help from: *Football Club History Database. http://www.fchd.info/SALTNEY.HTM *Clwyd Football League. https://web.archive.org/web/20110722075702/http://clwydfootballleague.co.uk/ *Welsh Football Data Archive. http://www.wfda.co.uk {{Coord, 53, 10, 28.6, N, 2, 56, 21, W, type:landmark, display=title Sport in Flintshire Football clubs in Wales Welsh National League (Wrexham Area) Premier Division clubs Association football clubs established in 2010 Ardal Leagues clubs Welsh Alliance League clubs