Cheadle Town F.C.

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Not to be confused with Cheadle Town F.C. in the Staffordshire County Senior League.
Cheadle Town
Cheadle Town crest
Full name Cheadle Town Football Club
Founded 1961 (as Grasmere Rovers)
Ground Park Road Stadium
Cheadle
Stockport
Ground Capacity 2,000
Chairman Chris Davies
Manager Terry Hincks
League North West Counties Football League
Division One
2014–15 North West Counties Football League
Division One, 10th

Cheadle Town F.C. are a football club based in Cheadle, a suburb of Stockport, Greater Manchester. They were established in 1961 and joined the North West Counties Football League in 1983. They are currently members of the North West Counties Football League Division One (the new name of the "old" Division Two as of 2008–09[1]). Their home ground is Park Road Stadium.

History

As Grasmere Rovers

Cheadle Town's history can be traced back to 1961 when a 14-year-old boy called Barrie Dean asked his neighbour, Chris Davies, to help his friends form a football team. This team was called Grasmere Rovers after the name of the street that both Dean and Davies lived on (Grasmere Avenue). Chris Davies took on the role of team manager and on 3 September 1961, Grasmere Rovers took to the field for the first time, losing 0–5 to Sutton Boys.

File:CTFC-FirstGrasmereTeam.jpg
The first ever line up of Grasmere Rovers FC

Grasmere started out in the Manchester Junior Football League – a league they would eventually win in the 1967–68 season – playing their games on a Sunday afternoon at The Mellands Playing Fields in Belle Vue. They joined the Manchester League in 1972, allowing them to play their football on the more regular Saturday afternoon. Now under the managerial guidance of Albert Pike, with Chris Davies as chairman and now playing their matches at Surrey Street in Glossop, Grasmere Rovers went from strength-to-strength; the peak of which was the 1979–80 season where they won the Manchester League, the Gilchrist Cup, the Manchester County Amateur Cup and the Derbyshire Junior Cup. In that same season striker Peter Tilley ran in 43 goals.

The team moved to their present-day home of Park Road for the 1982–83 season. Al Sadd were the first ever visitors on Saturday 12 August 1982, running out 4–1 winners on the day. This would be the last season that the team would be known as Grasmere Rovers.[2]

As Cheadle Town

The club joined the North West Counties Football League for the 1983–84 season as Cheadle Town, under the managerial guidance of Gerry Clewes. They finished their first season a lowly 15th in Division Three but were promoted "by default" at the end of the 1986–87 season when Division Three was incorporated into Division Two.

Cheadle Town have spent most of their NWCFL life in Division Two; 1998 saw the start of a three-year escape from Division Two as the club were promoted to Division One. The club struggled with lowly finishes during their three seasons and were ultimately relegated back to Division Two in 2001 after finishing bottom. They have stayed at this level ever since; the fact that Cheadle Town found themselves in Division One for the start of the 2008–09 season was merely down to a renaming of the NWCFL leagues.

In December 2013, Terry Hincks was appointed first team manager.[3]

180px
180px
Cheadle's more traditional colours of black-and-white as seen in the 2008-09 season (left) and the green-and-white shirt introduced for the 2011-12 season, reflecting on Grasmere Rovers' original colours

Club colours & badge

Cheadle Town's traditional colours are white and black (as reflected on the club badge), worn in the combination of white shirts, black shorts and black stockings. However, over recent seasons they have appeared in yellow shirts, blue shorts and yellow stockings and sky blue and white striped shirts, navy blue shorts and stockings. The club returned to white-and-black for the 2008–09 season.[4]

As part of the club's 50th anniversary celebrations the club decided to revert to the original colours of Grasmere Rovers – green and white – on a permanent basis.[5]

The club badge is taken directly from the coat of arms granted to the Cheadle & Gatley Urban District Council back in December 1955.[6]

Stadium

Park Road Stadium has an official capacity of 2,000; its record attendance is 1,700 for a friendly match against Stockport County in August 1994. During the 1966 World Cup it was used by the Portuguese national team as a training ground and has also had the honour of hosting a soccer school run by Brazilian legend Jairzinho during the summer of 1993.

It has a covered main stand on the west side of the pitch that can seat approximately 250 and contains the changing rooms underneath; the other three sides of the pitch are uncovered and surrounded by nothing more than a railing. Other facilities at the stadium include a clubhouse and a portable building that doubles up as the refreshments kiosk and hospitality room.

These facilities were severely damaged by a spate of vandalism during the last two weeks of June 2008. The catalogue of damage included fencing being ripped down, the away dug-out being destroyed and outside lighting being smashed.[7] The club managed to have the damage repaired in time for the start of the 2008–09 season.

  • ParkRoadMainStand2013.jpg

    The Main Stand at Park Road Stadium

  • ParkRoadMainStandView.jpg

    The view from the Main Stand, looking towards the Tennyson Road end

  • ParkRoadClubhouse.jpg

    The old clubhouse, demolished in November 2014

Planned refurbishment

All of the facilities mentioned above at Park Road stadium were already in a state of disrepair before the June 2008 vandalism. The club had hoped to make a start on their planned £1.9m refurbishment of the stadium towards the start of the 2011–12 season which would have seen improvements made to the main stand, a new clubhouse, new changing facilities for teams and officials, a new all-weather football pitch, two new five-a-side pitches, new perimeter fence and railings plus a new 60m x 40m grass pitch.[8] In October 2010 members of Stockport Council's Cheadle Area Committee backed the club's proposal to purchase the ground from the council.[9] As of February 2013 the club had managed to build just one five-a-side football pitch on-site and still had plans to replace the clubhouse with one that would have space for a nursery and a small sports hall.[10]

In April 2014 the club announced that they had been awarded a £5,000 grant from Capital One as part of the company's Grounds For Improvement competition. This money was used for two new dugouts, a brand-new hard-standing surface directly from the tunnel to the dugout areas and new storage facilities.[11]

Playing squad

As of 5 January 2016: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
England GK Steve Piggott
England GK Tom Elford
England DF Luke Pearson
Northern Ireland DF Jonathan McLaughlin
England DF Anthony Sacks
England DF Michael Kennedy
England DF James Dunn
England DF Andy Street
England MF Luke Hincks
England MF Christopher Sherrington
England MF Andrew Lindon
England MF Conor Naughton
No. Position Player
England MF Callum Jones
England MF Liam Tongue
England MF Anthony Trucca
England FW Niall Rhodes
England FW Jordan Walker
England FW Darryhl Mason
South Africa FW Thabiso Magida
England FW Dean Nolan
England FW Richard Whyatt
England FW Arnold Nsimbe
England FW James Horan

Players who went on to play for Football League teams

(club in brackets is the one joined by player after leaving Cheadle Town)

Honours

As Grasmere Rovers

  • Manchester & District Cup
    • Winners 1972–73
  • Manchester League Division One
    • Winners 1979–80
    • Runners-up 1980–81, 1981–82
  • Manchester County Amateur Cup
    • Winners 1979–80
  • Gilchrist Cup
    • Winners 1979–80
  • Derbyshire Junior Cup
    • Winners 1979–80

As Cheadle Town

  • Lamot Pils Trophy
    • Runners-up 1990–91
  • North West Counties Division Two Trophy
    • Runners-up 1995–96, 2009–10
  • Stockport Senior Cup (the club uses the Reserves squad to compete in this tournament)
    • Runners-Up 2009-10
    • Winners 2012-13

League performances

Cheadle Town FC: Final League Positions
Season League Position No. of teams Notes
1983–84 North West Counties Division 3 15th 18
1984–85 12th 18
1985–86 7th 15
1986–87 8th 13 Division 3 merged with Division 2 at end of season
1987–88 North West Counties Division 2 12th 22
1988–89 14th 18
1989–90 6th 16
1990–91 7th 18 Lamot Pils Trophy Runners-Up
1991–92 9th 18
1992–93 12th 18
1993–94 12th 18
1994–95 11th 16
1995–96 6th 18 NWCFL Division 2 Trophy Runners-Up
1996–97 9th 20
1997–98 4th 21 Promoted
1998–99 North West Counties Division 1 17th 21
1999–2000 18th 22
2000–01 22nd 22 Relegated
2001–02 North West Counties Division 2 17th 21
2002–03 13th 19
2003–04 16th 20
2004–05 12th 19
2005–06 14th 19
2006–07 12th 18
2007–08 14th 18
2008–09 North West Counties Division 1 7th 18 Division 2 renamed to Division 1
2009–10 14th 17 NWCFL Division 1 Trophy Runners-Up
2010–11 10th 18
2011–12 8th 18
2012–13 7th 18 Stockport Senior Cup Winners
2013–14 11th 19
2014–15 10th 19

Foreign tours

Cheadle Town are famous throughout non-league football for their foreign tours. When abroad the club travels under the name of AFC Manchester and have clocked up over 200,000 airmiles, 96 games in 30 different countries, a total aggregate crowd of 312,000 and 111 goals. Opponents have included seven national teams with the club being the first and only English outfit to play in and against Cuba (in 1975) – a match that was shown on Cuban national television. They have even graced the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, playing to a crowd of 65,000 and met people such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ronnie Biggs and Rajiv Gandhi.

In October 2014 the club played host to the Russian under-19 team as a warm-up for the Russians prior to their game against Northern Ireland. Cheadle lost 0–22.[12]

Link with Cheadle and Gatley JFC

In August 2015, the club announced that they were an FA Charter Standard Community Club, an award they were given jointly with local junior football side Cheadle and Gatley JFC. The partnership will provide a football pathway from junior level right through to the First XI at Cheadle Town.[13]

References

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External links

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  4. ↑ http://www.cheadletownfc.com/2008/07/ebony-and-ivory.html
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