Sutton Coldfield Town

Sutton Coldfield Town FC is a non league football club from the large suburb eight miles north of the centre of Birmingham of the same name. The club were formed in 1879 starting out playing at Sutton Park.

Town competed in the Central Birmingham League, Aston & District League, Small Heath League and the Suburban League. ‘The Royals’ moved to Coles Lane in 1920 as they competed in the Birmingham Alliance and Birmingham Combination as Sutton Town.

For 1962-63 Town played in the newly renamed West Midlands (Regional) League, changing their name to incorporate ‘Coldfield’ in its title in 1964. A year later Sutton moved to the Worcestershire Combination, which changed its name to the Midland Combination for the 1968-69 season.

After finishing league runners up in consecutive seasons at the turn of the 70’s, The Royals won their first championships in 1977-78 and 1978-79, resulting in a move to the higher West Midlands (Regional) League where they won the title at the first attempt. A fine FA Cup run in 1980-81 saw Town reach the First Round, where Doncaster Rovers ended the fun with a 2-0 win at Coles Lane.

Town won promotion to the Southern League Midland Division for 1982-83 after a second place finish in the West Midlands (Regional) League. Further success came when they were promoted to the Premier Division at the first attempt, but relegation came after just one season at the elevated status.

Town remained in the differently titled second tier of the Southern League for many years. They reached the play offs in 2003-04, but Banbury United ended any hopes of promotion. Following restructuring Sutton were allocated a place in Southern League Division One Midlands in 2006-07, but were transferred owing to the geographical location to the Northern Premier League Division One South for the 2010-11 campaign.

Sutton Coldfield Town FC will play in the Northern Premier League Division One South for the 2013-14 season.

My visit

Romulus 4 Scarborough Athletic 2 (Saturday 7^th September 2013) Northern Premier League Division One South (att: 171)

For full details of my day out and my view of the match, please visit the Romulus page at: http://worldgroundhop.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Romulus

Here is my impression of Coles Lane.

The nice fifteen minute leisurely walk from the station took me down to Coles Lane, where gap between the houses took me to the ground entrance. A small shop selling drinks and groceries was by the entrance.

Cars were parked on the hard standing to the left hand end of the arena, next to the clubhouse with its refreshments serving hatch in front. Several building housed other activities such as the local Table Tennis and Sub Aqua Clubs. The left hand touchline had a cover and then a section of open standing. The far end had a cover over the hard standing directly behind the goal.

The final side was dominated by a superb old Main Stand, which was a raised seating deck with flat hard standing in front and changing rooms below the seats. The centre section had blue tip up seats for dignitaries, with the wings consisting of well worn benches. The view was magnificent from there once I’d negotiated the rickety old stairs.

A small section of what was becoming overgrown terracing was further down the touchline. It typified a slightly ageing and ramshackle look, but it I would rather have that than an identikit newly built ground any day. The lifeblood of the ground was the artificial 3G pitch, and the extra block of changing rooms and toilets stood next to it, which allowed the partitioning off of the playing area to hire whenever senior football was not being played.

Coles Lane had adapted to embrace new facilities in a traditional arena. If only all clubs could consider doing similar in the future.

Stafford Rangers

Stafford Rangers FC are a non league football club from the county town of Staffordshire in England's West Midlands. It is widely believed that the club were formed in 1876, although no-one can be quite sure as early minute books were lost in World War One.

Rangers started out playing cup games and friendlies. They reached the first round of the FA Cup in 1884-85 and 1885-86. Up to the turn of the century the club competed in the Shropshire League, Birmingham League and North Staffordshire League while moving into their Marston Road home in 1896.After rejoining the Birmingham & District League in 1900-01 'Boro' as the club are nicknamed, were demoted but won their place back before winning the league title in 1926-27 as well as finishing as runners up on two other occasions.

The 1930's were spent with Boro suffering from severe financial worries. A successful appeal was made for donations to pay off the clubs creditors. After peace broke out following World War Two, Rangers spent six seasons in the Birmingham Combination before moving to the Cheshire County League.

The early sixties saw more financial worries before the appointment of Colin Hutchinson as manager saw a turn around in on the pitch fortunes, and a league runners up place led to inclusion in the Northern Premier League for the 1969-70 season. Roy Chapman came in as manager as angers enjoyed the greatest spell in their history.

The 1971-72 season saw Stafford complete the Northern Premier League and FA Trophy double, with Barnet beaten 3-2 at Wembley. Ray Williams scored forty eight goals during the triumphant season. Rangers reached the Trophy semi final the following season, but were defeated by Wigan Athletic.

The 1974-75 campaign saw angers go on a tremendous FA Cup run all the way to the fourth round. After Belper Town, Macclesfield Town, Burton Albion and Kings Lynn were knocked out in the Preliminary Rounds, Rangers beat Stockport County, Halifax Town and Rotherham United, before they went out in front of 31,160 fans against Peterborough United at Stoke City's Victoria Ground.

In 1975-76 Boro ended league runners up and lost 3-2 at Wembley to Scarborough in the Trophy final, while Chapman had a spell at Stockport County before returning to Marston Road. Rangers also reached the second round of the FA Cup following wins against Alvechurch and AP Leamington before Halifax exacted their revenge for the previous campaign. Further success came in 1979 as the club collected a second FA Trophy win. This time Kettering Town were defeated 2-0 at Wembley.

Rangers became founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979, but were relegated back to the Northern Premier League following the 1982-83 season. Ron Reid came in as manager as the club won the league title in 1984-85, returning to non league's elite, as the league changed its title to become the Conference a season later.

Reid soon moved on following a Bob Lord Trophy win, with several managers all giving the job their best shot without success. Stan Collymore was sold to Crystal Palace for a substantial fee to help with finances. In 1992-93 Boro got to the second round of the FA Cup once more, but success was thin on the ground, leading to relegation to the Southern League at the end of the 1994-95 campaign. The rot was set in and the club suffered a second successive demotion.

Under Ian Painter, a free scoring Rangers side won the Southern League Western Division in 1999-00. Phil Robinson followed Painter a couple of seasons later as support increased as he looked to embrace local talent. After a couple of good seasons, Rangers became founder members of Conference North in 2004-05.

The 2005-06 season saw Boro win promotion to the Conference national division following a play off win over Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium. The following campaign saw Stafford get to the FA Cup second round after beating Dagenham & Redbridge in a live TV game. However, the club struggled to compete in the league as Robinson departed after a five and a half year spell at the helm.

Steve Bull was appointed in February 2008, but he couldn't prevent Rangers being relegated to Conference North. Bull lasted less than a year before Chris Brindley came in. he summer of 2009 saw Rangers close to closure as they needed to pay an immediate £50,000 debt. The fans came to the rescue once again.

Chairman Jon Downing resigned after seventeen years on the board of directors as the club continued to struggle on and off the pitch. Brindley was replaced in September 2010 by Tim Flowers and then Matt Elliott, who could not save the team in the 2010-11 season as they were relegated to the Northern Premier League. Greg Clowes became the new manager in May 2011.

Stafford Rangers FC will play in the Northern Premier League Premier Division in the 2013-14 season.


My visits

Stafford Rangers 0 Scarborough 0 (Sunday 13th May 1979) Northern Premier League (att: 1,523)

Dad too Nick and I to this game on the Supporters Club coach. It would be the last game the teams would play before moving to the newly formed Alliance Premier League game the season after. It was just a week or so before Rangers were to play at Wembley in the FA Trophy Final, so excitement was high.

Note from the programme, that admission was by programme only. This was in the very early days of Sunday football in the UK and clubs were not allowed to charge for admission. Instead they produced a low cost programme and charged fans for that and then let them in.

I was still new to seeing other non league grounds and compared then all to the Athletic Ground back in Scarborough. I remember thinking that Marston Road was not that good, though hindsight has taught me that it was in fact an excellent venue.

The Main Stand was a raised seating area with flat open standing towards the Marston Road end where the changing rooms were situated, and a few steps of terrace on the other side. Behind the goal was a flat open shallow shale bank. The Lotus Side was a terrace with the centre section covered with a low roof. Behind the far goal was a small terrace with a cover behind the goal and a programme shop at the rear.

The programme shop did a bit of trade from me after the kind gent running it opened up specially. That was about the highlight for me as a poor end of season game petered out without many chances. It would be the last time some of Scarborough's old heroes would pull on the red shirt as they didn't fancy the travel involved in a national division the following campaign.

Stafford Rangers 3 Scarborough 0 (Saturday 28th October 2006) FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round (att: 1,034)

Scarborough were drawn away to Rangers in what would be the old clubs last ever game in the FA Cup. They were having a terrible time financially would would finish the club off, despite Mark Patterson doing a heroic job with his limited resources on the pitch.

I managed to get away from work at 11am and got on board the train at Euston with a couple of cans to quench my thirst. With time being short on arrival I took a taxi straight to the ground and had a couple of pints with Carl Ellis and other Seadogs. There was as ever a good turnout.

Scarborough actually played very well and created a couple of chances against a Stafford team from a division above. However, Rangers scored and from then on there was only going to be one winner. Guy Madjo the big centre forward was a class above anything else on show.

At full time we walked back to the station down Marston Road and through a town centre, with plenty of young chavs hanging around doing their best to look menacing. It said something that the towns jail was the major tourist attraction. It was so bad that we didn't find a pub and ended up with a can at the station buffet, where to our surprise Mr Madjo pitched up. He was heading back to London on the same train as myself.

Aveley

Aveley FC are a non league football club, who were formed in 1927. Aveley is a small town in Thurrock, Essex which is located just over sixteen miles east of central London.

'The Millers' played in local competition before joining the London League in 1949. The Premier Division title was lifted in 1954-55, and two years later the club made the switch to the Delphian League. Following the closure of that competition in 1963 Aveley joined the Athenian League.

After winning a divisional title Aveley joined the second tier of the Isthmian League in 1973 as founder members. In 1985-86 the club were relegated to the third tier of the league before bouncing back four years later. However, by 1995 two further relegation's had been suffered. 

The new millennium brought greater luck as the club were promoted to Division One North after league reorganisation. Further non league restructuring saw Aveley switched to the Southern League East Division for the 2004-05 campaign. They remained their for two seasons before moving back to Division One North of the Isthmian League.

Rod Stringer's side made an impact and were crowned champions in their second year back, and gaining promotion to the Premier Division. In their first season at their elevated status Aveley finished in third place, but were denied promotion after being defeated in the play offs by Boreham Wood at the semi final stage.

In 2011-12 the club were relegated once more.

Aveley FC will compete in the Isthmian League Division One North for the 2013-14 season.

My visits

Aveley 5 Kingsbury Town 1 (Monday 3rd January 2000) Isthmian League Division Three (att: approx 70)

My first live football match of the new millennium saw me visit Mill Field for a fourth tier Isthmian League encounter. I was keen to get out of the house and see some action and a new place, and with the game kicking off at noon it also gave me the opportunity to catch a bus to Grays Athletic v Bishop's Stortford at 3pm afterwards.

I took the train to Rainham before catching the bus which deposited me virtually outside the ground. It was a dull and cold day, but my enthusiasm was bright as I entered another new venue on my long list.

Mill Field was a better venue than I expected. A large Main Stand stood behind an open terrace which curved away from the pitch by the half way line. Opposite was a small cover to shelter standing spectators. Both ends were open with a just a couple of steps of terracing. The clubhouse was by the turnstile corner.

I decided to sit in the stand, which offered an excellent view of proceedings. A lady was on the tannoy and doing a fine job. It was a cold morning as the teams entered the fray, but the visiting defence would soon be in a sweat as they were led a merry dance.

Former Dagenham & Redbridge striker Tony Rogers led the carnage. I can't remember exactly how many he scored, but I'm pretty certain  he got a hat trick. He was simply too good for his opponents.

At half time I'd been into the clubhouse for a whisky to warm up, and have a look at England's Test Match in South Africa. Unbelievable it was colder inside than out!

I returned to my previous position and watched the one sided match for the second period. At full time I wandered over the road. Before long the number 22 bus had turned up which took me to Grays via Lakeside Shopping Centre for the second leg of my entertainment.

Wednesday 26th September 2007

My return visit to Mill Field was to take some photos as part of a day out where I called in on twelve different venues. The ground was unaltered, save for the far side cover missing. It had been blown away in gale force winds a few months earlier and was still awaiting repair.

Birmingham City

Birmingham City FC are a football club from the second city of England of the same name. The club's origins go right back to 1875 when they were formed as Small Heath Alliance FC. Within two years the club had moved into a home ground at Muntz Street. In 1888 the club became the first to become a limited company as Small Heath FC.

A year later Small Heath were founder members of the Football Alliance, and then founder members of the Football League Division Two for the 1892-93 season. The club won the title at their first attempt but were denied promotion after losing in a 'test match', the predecessor to play offs. That was put right the season after as Small Heath took their place in Division One. 

In 1905 the club changed its name to Birmingham FC and opened the large St Andrews ground the season after. Birmingham suffered the first of many relegation's in 1908 to Division Two, where they remained until after the end of World War One. The 1920-21 campaign was a successful one as promotion was achieved and young striking starlet Joe Bradford made his debut. 

Birmingham reached the FA Cup Final in 1931, where they were defeated by local rivals West Bromwich Albion. In 1938-39 the club were relegated once more, but a record crowd of 66, 844 flocked to St Andrews for  the FA Cup tie with Everton. 

The club added 'City' to their name in 1943 as they returned in peacetime to a heavily bombed St Andrews. 1947-48 saw another promotion as champions, but their spell in the top flight lasted just two campaigns. Bob Brocklebank put the foundations in place as players such as Trevor Smith, Jeff Hall, Eddy Brown and Peter Murphy won another title and promotion in 1954-55 and then reach the FA Cup Final in 1956. The game was lost 3-1 to Manchester City, but it has remained famous as German keeper Bert Trautman played the final twenty minutes with a broken neck.

City were defeated at the semi final stage the following season, before becoming the first English side to play in European competition, as they went out at the semi final stage to FC Barcelona in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. City reached the final the following two seasons, but were defeated by Barcelona once more, and AS Roma. In reaching the 1961 final they beat Internazionale home and away. It would be a further forty years before Arsenal became the next English side to win a competitive game in the San Siro.

Birmingham lifted the 1963 League Cup following an aggregate win over bitter rivals Aston Villa. However, they were once again demoted at the end of the 1964-65 season. Stan ullis was lured out of retirement for a spell as manager as local businessman and chairman Clifford Coombs later tried to lure Brian Clough and then Don Revie to take over team affairs. Freddie Goodwin took over in the early 70's and assembled an attractive side including Bob Latchford, Bob Hatton and a sixteen year old Trevor Francis.

City won promotion in 1971-72 and reached the FA Cup semi final, before going out to Leeds United. They reached the same stage in 1975, but underdogs Fulham won through after a replay. Sir Alf Ramsey had an unsuccessful stint in charge before Jim mith took over. The club signed Argentinian World Cup winner Alberto Tarantini, but sold Trevor Francis for £1M as relegation was a certainty towards the end of the 1978-79 season.

However, Smith's team won their status back at the first attempt. He filled his team with experience, but was sacked after a poor run to be replaced by former Villa boss Ron Saunders, which upset fans of both clubs. He packed his team with hard men like Mick Harford and Robert Hopkins but the tactics failed as once more City went down to Division Two in 1983-84.

City were nothing if not resilient and bounced straight back into the top flight, but their joy was not to last long as the club were about to enter their darkest days. The Coombs family sold the club to the unpopular Ken Wheldon. Managers came and went as Birmingham were relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history as they suffered a financial crisis as attendances dropped to around 6,000.

Wheldon sold the club to the Kumar brothers, who promised investment, but delivered little. In May 1991 the team with Lou Macari as the latest manager won the Football League Trophy at Wembley; defeating Tranmere Rovers in front of more than 58,000 fans. Unfortunately Macari and his coaching staff left to go to Stoke City, with Terry Cooper coming in to run team affairs.

Cooper led the team to promotion with signings funded by the fans. The Kumar's business went into receivership following a banking collapse, leading to the club entering administration. hey were saved after several months when the proprietor of Sport Newspapers David Sullivan bought the club and installed twenty three year old Karen Brady as Managing Director. 

The 1993-94 season saw a further relegation under Barry Fry, with The Kop and tilton Road terraces being demolished at the end of the campaign to be replaced with new all seater stands. Fry took 'The Blues' straight back up to the second tier and they won another Football League Trophy as a 'Golden Goal' from Paul Tait defeated Carlisle United in extra time. Fry was sacked in the summer of 1996 to be replaced by the legendary Trevor Francis.

Francis stabilised the team on the pitch, while the Railway End of St Andrews was rebuilt. The team gradually progressed and were tantalisingly close to reaching the Premier league, but consecutive play off semi final defeats to Watford, Barnsley and Preston North End put pay to their dreams. City reached the League Cup Final of 2001, but Liverpool won the final at the Millennium Stadium on penalty kicks. 

Francis's run came to an end as Steve Bruce came in  to try and win the elusive promotion. Eventually Birmingham reached the top flight once more after returning to Cardiff to win their own shoot out against Norwich City to cap off a triumphant 2001-12 season. Money was spent on quality players of the calibre of Walter Pandani, Milael Forssell, Matthew Upson and Robbie Savage secure two consecutive mid table finishes.

However, the 2005-06 campaign would end in relegation. Players were sold on but Bruce invested in youth and took the side back up at the first attempt. The Hong Kong based businessman Carson Yeung bought a large stake holding in the club, with plans to complete the sale for the rest of the shares. Bruce departed to take up the Wigan Athletic job in November 2007. Alex McLeish took over but the side went down at the end of the season, with Sullivan blaming Bruce's earlier poor signings for the predicament.

McLeish's men won promotion at the first attempt and further success came when they lifted the 2011 League Cup. Arsenal were defeated 2-1 at Wembley with goals from Nikola Zigic and Obefemi Martins. However, the joy didn't last as Yeung's promises were not coming to pass and City were relegated in May 2011.

McLeish left to make a very unpopular decision in joining Aston Villa with Chris Hughton coming in to replace him. He did a fine job with the club in financial turmoil and under a transfer embargo, before taking the Norwich City job after just one season at the helm. Lee Clark came in and managed to keep The Blues in The Championship, having to make do with free and loan signings to get by. 

Birmingham City FC will play in the Football League Championship in the 2013-14 season.


My visit

Charlton Athletic 2 Leeds United 1 after extra time (Friday 29th May 1987) Play Off Final Replay (att: 18,000)

Scarborough had just been promoted to the Football League, I'd just got a job as a temporary postman and life was pretty good. My brother Nick and I were good pals with lots of Leeds fans so with them having spare tickets and seats on their coaches heading to St Andrews, we took the opportunity to tick off a new ground.

The match was a replay final after both legs had ended 1-0 to the home side, back in the days before the finals were being held at Wembley. Indeed, the formula was even different back then as the team finishing third bottom went into the play offs rather than going straight down. It was in that position that Charlton found themselves, fighting to hang on to their top flight status.

There was no danger of a pub stop or beer before the game, so it was a case of a couple before setting off and the old tactic of a bottle of orange laced with vodka for the coach. We arrived around thirty minutes before kick off and were met by a heavy police presence.

St Andrews was a big old place, but showing signs of ageing. We were placed on the huge Kop down one side of the pitch. The massive terracing had a large roof over the back half, which was ideal for acoustics. It continued round an open corner and behind the Tilton Road goal, which also had a roof over the rear. The Main Stand opposite was two decks of seating, with the lower being converted from a former terrace. It was pretty much the same arrangement at the Railway End.

The game was extremely tense with defences on top meaning that the game finished goalless after ninety minutes, meaning the requirement of extra time. It was still blank at the interval in the additional period before John Sheridan sent the vast majority of the crowd wild with delight by putting Leeds ahead with just eleven minutes remaining. 

However, Athletic were made of stern stuff and Yorkshire born centre back Peter Shirtliff equalised four minutes later. It looked like penalty kicks would decide the tie, but Shirtliff added the winner with three minutes remaining to the delight of the sprinkling of Charlton fans.

The Leeds players and fans were crushed after missing out on promotion in the same season as reaching the semi final of the FA Cup. We got back on the coaches. It was rather late when we got back to Scarborough.


The images of St Andrews on this page have been taken from the internet. I hope to revisit as the ground has changed out of all recognition since my match there.

Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic FC are a football club from the Lancashire town of the same name, which has made its wealth through industry. It is located approximately sixteen miles north west of Manchester. Athletic were formed in 1932, but were by no means the first senior club to represent the town.

Previous clubs who tried and failed to establish themselves were Wigan AFC, Wigan Central FC, Wigan County FC, Wigan Town FC and then Wigan United FC who were formed in September 1919. They were found guilty of paying their players for time away from work, who was an illegal practise in the Lancashire Combination, where they were playing their league games. A new club called Wigan Association took over United's fixtures, but were told to change their name to avoid confusion with Wigan FC, the town's rugby league club; leading to the name of Wigan Borough FC being adopted. Despite a lowly finish in the league, 'The Boro' were given a place into the newly formed Football League Division Three North for the 1921-22 season.

Boro's home ground was Springfield Park, which had been used for the various town clubs since Wigan County had first used it in 1897. Boro's most successful season came in 1928-29, when they finished fourth in the league and reached the third round of the FA Cup. The cup tie attracted a record gate to Springfield Park of 30,443 to see the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday. Unfortunately that was as good as it got for the club. During the Great Depression in 1931 the club found itself unable to pay its players and was dissolved.

Following a meeting chaired by the Mayor of Wigan at the Queens Hall in 1932, Wigan Athletic were formed and they quickly purchased Springfield Park for £2,850. The club became members of the Cheshire County League for the 1932-33 season while unsuccessfully applying for membership of the Football League.

'The Latics' soon showed their strength as they were crowned Cheshire County League in three consecutive seasons starting in the 1933-34 campaign. After the end of World War Two Athletic struggled and finished bottom of the league and were not re-elected, joining the Lancashire Combination for the 1947-48 season and winning the title at their first attempt in their new club colours of blue and white. Three further championship crowns were added throughout the 1950's, before Wigan rejoined the Cheshire County League for the 1961-62 season.

A fourth league title was added in the 1964-65 season with Harry Lyon scoring an amazing sixty six goals during the campaign. The following season Lyon went down in Wigan folklore following an FA Cup match against Doncaster Rovers. In the eighteenth minute of the game Lyon was stretchered from the field with torn ankle ligaments. He received treatment, with rumours that whisky was also taken and returned with his ankle bandaged. In the second half of the game Lyon scored a hat trick to fire his team to a 3-1 victory.

Floodlights were installed at Springfield Park in 1966 with Athletic becoming founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968-69. After finishing runners-up a couple of times The Latics won the league title in 1971-72. At the end of the season, the club who were fed up with their applications to join the Football League being unsuccessful, applied to join the second division of the Scottish League. Again the attempt ended in rejection.

Manager Les Rigby built a very competitive side including the likes of Johnny King and John Rogers who would later find great success with Altrincham. Wigan reached Wembley for the 1973 FA Trophy Final, but they were defeated 2-1 after extra time by underdogs Scarborough. A second NPL title was added in 1974-75 and after ending in a runners up place in 1977-78 Athletic were to receive their ultimate prize.

The ground of that seasons champions Boston United did not meet Football League criteria, but Springfield Park did. After many failed attempts Wigan Athletic became members of the Football League at the AGM on the 2nd June 1978 to take the place of Southport.

Athletic were an ambitious club and after Ian McNeill's side finished in sixth place in their debut season, he departed in 1981 to be replaced by former England international and European Cup winner Larry Lloyd as player boss. Bobby Charlton joined the board of directors led by chairman Freddie Pye. Lloyd took the side to promotion to Division three in the 1981-82 season.

Several managers such as Harry McNally, Ray Mathias and Bryan Hamilton in two spells led the team in the tird tier with Athletic with the latter being in charge when Wigan defeated Brentford 3-1 at Wembley in April 1985 to win the Football League Trophy. Mathias was in charge in 1986-97 as Athletic reached the end of season play offs where they were defeated by Swindon Town in the semi final.

Athletic were relegated back to the League's bottom tier at the end of the 1992-93 season as gates dropped. The 1993-94 season saw average attendances at a low of 1,845 as the team finished fourth from bottom of the table. In February 1995 local millionaire, owner of JJB Sports and former professional player Dave Whelan bought the club. His business had connections in Spain and through that he signed three Spaniards for the team; Roberto Martinez, Jesus Seba and Isidro Diaz, as well as appointing John Deehan as the new manager to replace Graham Barrow.

In 1996-97 The Latics were crowned as Division Three champions and returned to the third tier of the leagues with Graeme Jones leading the goalscoring charts. Dehan moved on to be replaced by the returning Mathias who's team won the Football League Trophy at Wembley in 1999 against Millwall. At the end of the season Athletic lost in the play offs at the semi final stage against Manchester City as the curtain came down at Springfield Park before the club moved to the brand new JJB Stadium, to share with Wigan Warriors Rugby League Club.

John Benson and then Bruce Rioch had spells in the managers chair before Steve Bruce came in towards the end of the 2000-01 season and led Athletic to the play offs with Jimmy Bullard running the midfield. Reading ended the dreams of promotion in the semi final, with Bruce stunning the club by resigning and taking the vacant position at Crystal Palace.

Paul Jewell arrived and built a good side that eventually won the Division Two title in 2002-03 with the aid of the goals of Nathan Ellington sending the club into The Championship. After a near miss in their first season at a completely new level, Jewell's side won promotion to the Premier League in 2004-05 as runners up to champions Sunderland. Arjan de Zeeuw controlled the defence with Jason Roberts leading the forwards in their triumphant season.

In their debut Premier League season The Latics finished in tenth place and also reached the League Cup Final, but they were defeated 4-0 by Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium. At the end of the season players such as Bullard and Jason Roberts departed to be replaced by big signings Emile Heskey and Antonio Valencia amongst others. After a late dip in form Wigan survived after a final day 2-1 win at Sheffield United to send their hosts down, with Jewell surprisingly resigning the following day. His assistant Chris Hutchings was installed in his place.

Again players departed including the aging De Zeeuw and Leighton Baines. Hutchings side with Marcus Bent up front struggled and the manager was dismissed in November 2007. Steve Bruce came in for his second spell with the club. He led the side comfortably to safety and then the following season the team finished in eleventh place, despite Heskey and Wilson Palacios departing during the January transfer window. However Bruce resigned for a second time in the summer of 2009 to join Sunderland.

Bruce's replacement was former playing hero Roberto Martinez who was tempted away from Swansea City. His debut season saw the club finish safe from relegation as they took a huge 9-1 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur along the way. The 2010-11 campaign was another nail biter for Latics fans as safety was only secured following a 1-0 win at Stoke City thanks to a Hugo Rodallega goal.

2011-12 saw another struggle. This time a May win at Blackburn Rovers relegated their hosts and secured their own future, this after Athletic looked doomed with a handfull of games remaining. A Shaun Maloney goal at the DW Stadium, as the JJB had been known since Whelan had sold his company in March 2009, defeated Manchester United and not only assisted his own side but also re-opened the title race for Manchester City.

Wigan had yet another long league season throughout the 2012-13 campaign, as goals were let in on a regular interval. Despite that the team performed admirably in the FA Cup. AFC Bournemouth, Macclesfield Town, Huddersfieeld Town, Everton and Millwall were defeated for Athletic to reach the Wembley final. On the big day they were the better side against hot favourites Manchester City with youngster Callum McManaman being awarded the man of the match award. Ben Watson scored the only goal of the game in stoppage time to take the cup back to Lancashire. However, the celebrations were somewhat soured as three days later Wigan were relegated to The Championship after a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal.

Martinez moved on in the summer of 2013 to take the Everton job, to be replaced by Owen Coyle. However, his tenure was not a successful one and he was dismissed before Christmas 2013. The German Uwe Rosler came in to take over the hot seat.

Wigan Athletic FC will play in the Football League Championship in the 2013-14 season.


My visits

Wigan Athletic 3 Hull City 0 (Saturday 21st February 1987) FA Cup Round Five

Hull City had a decent team at the time and had been boosted by new signings Charlie Palmer and Alex Dyer so we set out on the coach from Scarborough, picking up in Filey and then Bridlington in a pretty decent mood. We were pretty confident that City may even reach the semi finals, and from there who knew?

We arrived in the gloomy town of Wigan on a grey day when my much missed late pal Nick Groombridge announced that we were there, only for the stadium over the road to be Central Park, the home of Wigan Rugby League Club! Eventually we were dropped outside the rear of the Main Stand at Springfield Park on a rough coach and car park.

We were herded by police and their horses into queues to get inside a very basic away end. Springfield Park was a decent sized arena but it wasn't much to look at. There were signs that a track once ran round the pitch, so therefore the ends curved round the back of the goals. Our end had a few rows of terracing at the front, then a large grass bank with a little shed at the top to protect a couple of hundred from the rain. Down the left hand side was the long St Andrews Drive Side with a cover over the terracing. The far end had open terracing curved around the track, with the final side having a fine large Main Stand filling the middle third with open terracing in front and at either side.

Up until an hour of the game we were happy and confident. Dyer was having a good game and chances were being created. Then for some reason The Tigers boss Brian Horton withdrew Dyer and made some tactical changes. The game changed within a few minutes.

The Latics front pairing of Bobby Campbell and Paul Jewell started to get service and they ran the City defence ragged. Three goals went in in a relatively short interval and that was the end of the cup run. Unfortunately this brought out the worse in the visiting fans as many scaled the high fences and a short running battle took place with the police. To add to the farce several slipped and fell down the grass bank.

It was an angry but quiet coach heading home.

Wigan Athletic 1 Scarborough 0 (Saturday 4th December 1993) FA Cup Round Two

My memory fails me on how I got to this game, but I know I got there around 1pm and went into The Springfield, a fine large traditional pub a few minutes from the ground. At the time it had a bowling green at the rear and they did excellent rolls at a cheap price, plus the beer was good. I seem to recall my work colleague Pete Trapps reminding the locals of how we beat them at Wembley in 1973.

I also went to another pub with Baz Rewcroft, quite possibly The Brickmakers Arms on Woodhouse Lane. We'd had a good drink when we arrived at the turnstiles, but not as many as one Seadog who was being led away owing to the fact he didn't have much of an idea as to where he was.

A frustrating afternoon ended in a 1-0 defeat despite Boro playing well enough and having a goal disallowed.

Wigan Athletic 1 Scarborough 1 (Saturday 1st October 1994) Division Three (att: 1,403)

I definitely went to this game in a car with Bunner, Filey John, Crusher and Carl Ellis. I remember it very well as it was a momentous occasion at our house in Prospect Road as we were about to join the satellite age. We had a dish and box but Dave Trenham was struggling to get it pointing in the right direction. I left my Dad in charge looking forward to arriving home for a nice meal and an evening of channel hopping.

We were a little late in arriving. I'm not even sure if there was time for a beer. We sat upstairs in the Main Stand thanks to some tickets left by the players. The view from up there was magnificent. We were a little bit surprised to find Jason White up there, as he had been in fine form up front. Apparently he'd got stuck in traffrc from Birmingham and arrived late so manager Billy Ayre left him out.

Boro managed a draw in a poor game and we went into the not massively hospitable social club for a couple of beers and to catch the full time scores before our journey home. The adventure was just to begin.

I worked night shifts at the time so by now I was tired and fell asleep. The next thing I knew was a stange feeling as a felt like I was being lifted. I looked out of the window to find myself alone in the car which was being whinched onto a tow truck. It was broken.

The repair man couldn't allow me to stay in there so we all had to fit into his cab. Apparently all I complained about for the next hour or so was my liver, mash and gravy in the oven waiting for me. I was glad when I got home to get stuck in. Eventually we also got our Sky turned on as well!

Wigan Athletic 2 Scarborough 0 (Tuesday 20th February 1996) Division Three (att: 2,208)

We travelled to this match by mini bus while somehow convincing Bunner to drive. We picked John up who'd just finished his fish rounds. That didn't help the aroma on board. Again we plumped for the seats as Boro put in an insipid display. The highlight was seeing our lacklustre winger Kevin McGhee outpace the Wigan full back. We thought about calling the paramedics for him as we could only think that he was severely ill.

Astonishingly Bunner agreed for us to go into The Springfield for a couple of pints. We were in jovial mood back on board after the match had been quickly forgotten when a political discusion kicked off featuring John and myself amongst others. It was getting heated after ten minutes or so with Bunner seemingly listening in. Eventually he piped up that he found it all interesting, but did anyone know the way out of Wigan? He was lost!

I really miss random trips like those.

Wigan Athletic 2 Crystal Palace 1 (Saturday 25^thJanuary 2014) FA Cup Round Four (att:  9,524)

My quest to finish the 92 League grounds continued on a foul day. When I booked the discount rail tickets a couple of months earlier for £25 return I thought The Latics opponents would be Barnsley in The Championship, but I didn’t allow for the FA Cup set dates.

After night shift I had a sleep before heading to Euston. The train arrived at Wigan North Western station to be greeted by a torrential storm. I braved the weather and headed up to the town centre as it was around 1.40. My pub of choice was the Wetherspoon The Moon Under Water. The ale I chose was shocking. I was left undecided whether it was near the end of the barrel or just a bad taste. Whatever, I noted not to order Cheshire Gold again. It was so bad that I left half of it.

Not to be deterred, I had a plan B. As I hadn’t eaten I used my knowledge of such towns and looked down the streets around the market. Sure enough I soon came across Mr Chips on Hallgate. Their large portion of steak pudding, chips and gravy for £3.05 hit the spot, as a munched away while heading towards where I thought the stadium was.

It turned out that I went the long way round and was heading up towards where Springfield Park once stood. Groups of fans were walking the same way so I wasn’t too concerned. The sight of the Bricklayers Arms brought back memories of a visit in the past. The paths led under the railway, over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and then the River Douglas before passing the Robin Park Arena to head to the Springfield Stand.

The DW Stadium was light years away from Springfield Park resembling a smaller version of Ibrox before its corners were filled in. The wind was howling and we were still getting the occasional shower so I went inside up to the concourse and did my photography, as well as grabbing a cup of tea to try and keep out the cold.

The seats were by no means sold out so I could choose a decent view. The four stands were all of the same height and were all single tiers of seats. The main Springfield Stand had boxes and media facilities at the rear as well as the player’s tunnel. Opposite was the Boston Stand, named after legendary Wigan rugby league star Billy Boston, as the Warriors shared the stadium. This had a few more seats and a basic electronic scoreboard at the rear. The North Stand housed the away fans, while the South Stand was an exact replica, but was closed for the day.

Palace had the backing of some amazing support from their travelling faithful. For the full match they never stopped singing and cheering. The home fans weren’t bad either, and it led to a great atmosphere being created for such a relatively small crowd. I could well imagine the stadium to be a cauldron on the rare occasions it was full.

Before kick off Wigan’s chairman Dave Whelan was presented with a small replica FA Cup for the club to keep as previous winners of the competition. A tatty replica had been paraded outside by a charity, with patrons making donations to have their photo taken with it. The pre match and half time music was brilliant and reflected the town’s heritage towards soul music through the famous old Wigan Casino. Tracks from Frank Wilson and then Dobie Gray just before the teams came out really got me in the mood for the afternoon.

The match saw me watching Palace for the first time in the FA Cup since they won 2-1 in the third round in 1976 at Scarborough in front of the Match of the Day cameras. I was delighted to see that managers Uwe Rosler and Tony Pulis both fielded strong line ups. It was soon apparent that both sides were very keen on progression.

The game was open and flowed from end to end. The Latics probably had the better of the play although Ali Al Habsi had to make a stunning save to keep out a Cameron Jerome effort. Wigan took the lead when the excellent James McClean set up the hero of the 2013 final, Ben Watson. The former Eagles man slotted home neatly. A long delay to a bad neck injury inflicted on the visitors Jonathan Parr led to an eight minute delay before half time. I kept warm by going downstairs for sustenance.

The second period saw Palace push for an equaliser. Again Al Habsi pulled off a great save from a Jerome effort following a messy set piece. Wigan tended to play lots of clever one touch football, while wingers McClean and Callum McManaman caused problems throughout.

Eventually the leveller came on sixty nine minutes when substitute Aaron Wilbraham stabbed home from a corner, to increase the volume from the visiting fans by a few more decibels. At that point I would have put money on Palace going on to win the tie, but I would be proved wrong. McClean forged forward and caught visiting keeper Julian Speroni off guard to score from the edge of the box. Al Habsi made another top quality save at the other end.

Unfortunately because my train was booked for 5.09 and the game was running late owing to the earlier injury I had to leave five minutes from the end, though I kept in touch by listening to the live commentary on my radio app on my phone. The rain was lashing down and the wind howling as I made my way back to the station. It was further than I’d anticipated through the retail park and then up Wallgate, and I was most relieved to see the railway bridge ahead.

The train was running a couple of minutes late, so I made it with a little to spare. Because of the late ending game there were hardly any fans there to catch it. I was happy with this as the Palace fans could be loud and I needed some shut eye for work. My carriage was virtually empty and I woke as we approached Watford, so I was in decent fettle.

It had been a really good few hours out and about. Long live the FA Cup!

The images of Springfield Park have been taken from the internet as I didn't have my camera with me on any of my visits.