New Brighton Association Football Club is the name of two football clubs from the

seaside resort A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germ ...

of New Brighton, in Wallasey,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

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 ...

. The original club founded in 1921 were members of

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

from 1923 until 1951, playing 21 seasons in Division 3 North but were disbanded in 1983. In 1993, a club with the same name was formed and played in the

West Cheshire League The West Cheshire Association Football League (commonly known as the West Cheshire League) is an English football league in the county of Cheshire, which also includes teams from Merseyside. Its current principal sponsor is ''Carlsberg'', also ...

, until folding in 2012.

History

1921 club

The original New Brighton A.F.C. was formed in 1921 out of the ashes of the bankrupt South Liverpool. The club started life in the

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 it ...

in 1921, assuming South Liverpool's membership, under the chairmanship of local GP Dr. Tom Martlew. They played at Sandheys Park, situated on Rake Lane between Osbourne Avenue and Penkett Road. It is thought that the location of this ground gave rise to the club's nickname, ''The Rakers'', which they kept for the rest of their existence. After two seasons, the club was elected to the

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

of the Football League when the division expanded to 22 clubs. They also played Football League games at Tower Athletic Ground (formerly home to

New Brighton Tower New Brighton Tower was a steel lattice observation tower at New Brighton in the town of Wallasey, Cheshire (now in the Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside), England. It stood high, and was the tallest building in Great Britain when it opened ...

) from 1946 to 1951, after Sandheys Park was destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing during World War Two. The Sandheys Park bombsite subsequently was requisitioned for housing. In Third Division North, the club's history was largely undistinguished. From 1924 to 1928 Rakers managed top ten finishes, with the closest to promotion being a third-place finish in Season 1924/25, five points behind champions Darlington. After 1928, the club failed to finish in the top ten of the league for the rest of their existence. The club reached the fourth round of the

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 ...

on four occasions; firstly in 1925–26, when

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

beat them 2–0 at Meadow Lane; in the 1927–28 season when they lost to

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

, in the 1937–38 season under WJ Sawyer when they lost to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

in a replay, and in the 1956–57 season, when as a

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

club, they beat three League clubs before losing to 9–0 away to first division leaders,

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

. With Sandheys Park badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1942, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the club moved to the Tower Athletic Ground, the former home of New Brighton Tower. The club remained in the Third Division North until 1951, when they were voted out of the Football League after finishing bottom and replaced by

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Locat ...

. In these last years, the Rakers set one final record. On 15 March 1947, manager

Neil McBain Neil McBain (15 November 1895 – 13 May 1974) was a Scottish professional footballer and football manager. He remains the oldest player to appear in an English Football League match aged 51 years. Playing career Club McBain, a wing half ...

was forced to play in goal at Hartlepools; becoming the oldest player, at 51 years and 120 days, to feature in a Football League match. Rakers were beaten 3–0 in the game. As of June 2018 this record is still intact. The club dropped into the Lancashire Combination, before switching to the Cheshire County League in 1965. In 1981 the club finished bottom of the Cheshire County League second division, and were not re-elected. By then they had left the Tower Athletic Ground and were playing in Hoylake at Carr Lane, the club owed money to the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

and were forced to leave their ground in Hoylake which had seen much vandalism to its clubhouse. Despite a ground share with Newton FC from the West Cheshire League they failed to keep their Cheshire County League place, and it was too late to gain admission back into the West Cheshire League in which the Reserve side had played. However the club were accepted rather late into the South Wirral Premier Division for 1981–1982. This would prove a difficult season for them, losing players and ending up being relegated to the South Wirral First Division for season 1982–1983. The club was refused permission to build a ground in Leasowe Road not far from their former grounds. In the club's final season (1982–83), it was run by Len Ainscow (Chairman), Gary Burns (Secretary and Press-Secretary) and Brian Oxton (Manager and Treasurer). Oxton resigned the club from the league, but this was quickly reversed by Gary Burns and a side was hastily put together that lost to Rake Social by 11–3, with Geoff Tolley in charge for one game. Oxton returned as Manager, but shortly afterwards New Brighton was heavily beaten by Rake Social and by the end of the season it was clear that the club could no longer function. Despite calls for more Committee/Directors, there was little response and the club was disbanded.

1993 club

A new club of the same name was formed in 1993, and joined the Birkenhead and Wirral League, which they won in their first season. In 1995 the club switched to the South Wirral League. After upgrading their new ground, the club were admitted to the Second Division of the

in 1996. The club won the Second Division in the 2004–05 season, and were promoted to the First Division. Their best season was in 2007-08 when they finished fifth in the West Cheshire top division. But in the 2008–09 season the first team was obliged to drop out of the top division, with their record being expunged. The following year, the first team took the place of the reserve team in the second division of the West Cheshire League. In their final season, the re-formed club finished just outside the promotion places, third in the Second Division. However, the new club also folded in the close season of 2012, having been unable to raise a new committee to replace the outgoing one. At present no senior team bears the name of New Brighton in league competition.

External links

Every match result and League table while a member of the Football LeagueNew Brighton
Football Club History Database

Historical Kits
Rare British Pathe Footage of New Brighton in action: from the 2–1 win over Corinthians at Sandheys Park, 14 January 1928

History

1921 club

1993 club

See also

External links

Further reading