Athersley Recreation 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 Athersley,

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, South Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of the Northern Counties East League Premier Division and play at Sheerien Park.

History

The club was formed in 1979 as Athersley North Juniors. In 1983–84 they finished third in Division Two of the Barnsley Nelson League and were promoted to Division One. After finishing as runners-up in Division One the following season, they switched to Division Two of the Barnsley Junior League for the 1985–86 season. Their first season in the new division saw them finish third, earning promotion to Division One. They were renamed Athersley Recreation in the summer of 1986. After winning Division One in 1986–87, the club became members of Division One of the

Barnsley Association League The Barnsley Association League was a football competition for clubs in the Barnsley area of 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 ...

. They finished as runners-up in the following season, earning promotion to the Premier Division. The club went on to win back-to-back Premier Division titles in 1991–92 and 1992–93, and then three successive titles between 1995 and 1997. After their third title in 1996–97, the club moved up to Division Two of the

Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League The Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior Football League is an English football league that was founded in 1983 by the merger of the former Sheffield Association League and Hatchard League. The league has three divisions – the Premier Divis ...

in 1997. They won the division in their first season in the league, earning promotion to Division One. The following season saw them finish as runners-up, resulting in promotion to the Premier Division. They subsequently won the Premier Division at the first attempt. After three seasons in which they finished eighth, second and fourth, the club won the Premier Division again in 2003–04, starting a period of success that saw them win the title a further four times in the next eight seasons, finishing as runners-up on the other four occasions. After winning their sixth Premier Division title in 2011–12, the club was promoted to Division One of the Northern Counties East League. Their first season in the new league saw them finish as runners-up, earning promotion to the Premier Division. In 2013–14 they entered 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 footbal ...

for the first time, and a year later they made their FA Cup debut. In May 2014 they won the

Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup The Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup is a county cup competition involving teams within the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Football Association. Originally named the Sheffield Challenge Cup, it is the 5th oldest surviving cup competition i ...

for the first time, beating Frickley Athletic in the final at

Hillsborough Hillsborough may refer to: Australia *Hillsborough, New South Wales, a suburb of Lake Macquarie Canada *Hillsborough, New Brunswick *Hillsborough Parish, New Brunswick * Hillsborough, Nova Scotia, in Inverness County *Hillsborough (electoral d ...

.Athersley Rec’s Sheffield Senior Cup triumph – in pictures
Barnsley News and Sport, 8 May 2014

Season-by-season record

Ground

The club plays at Sheerien Park on Ollerton Road in Athersley. It has a capacity of 2,000, of which 420 is covered and 150 seated. File:Athersley_Rec_1.jpg File:Athersley Rec 2.jpg File:Athersley Rec 3.jpg

Honours

*Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League **Champions 1999–2000, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2011–12 **Division Two champions 1997–98 **League Cup winners 1997–98, 2005–06, 2008–09 *Barnsley Association League **Champions 1991–92, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97 *Barnsley Junior League **Champions 1986–87 *Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup **Winners 2013–14 *Sheffield & Hallamshire Association Cup **Winners 2007–08

Records

*Best League performance: 10th, Northern Counties East League Premier Division, 2013–14 *Best FA Cup performance: Preliminary round, 2014–15 *Best

performance: Second Round, 2013–14

References

External links

Official website
* {{coord, 53, 35, 7.195, N, 1, 28, 25.194, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in South Yorkshire Association football clubs established in 1979 Northern Counties East Football League 1979 establishments in England Sport in Barnsley Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior Football League Sheffield & Hallamshire County FA members Barnsley Association League