Altrincham F.C.
Altrincham Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. Founded in 1891 and nicknamed “the Robins”, they are currently members of the National League, the fifth tier of English football, and play at Moss Lane.
Altrincham was established by a Sunday school around 1891 as Rigby Memorial Club.[2] They soon merged with another local team, Grapplers, to form Broadheath Football Club,[2] and were founder members of the Manchester League in 1893.[3] Their first match in the league on 16 September 1893 saw them lose 7–0 to Hulme, and they went on to lose 14 of the remaining league matches as they finished bottom of the table.[4]
After playing at various grounds in Broadheath, Timperley and Altrincham, the club moved to Pollitt’s Field in 1903, at which point they changed their name to Altrincham.[2] They won the Cheshire Amateur Cup in their first season under the new name, and went on to win both the Manchester League and the Cheshire Senior Cup the following season.[2] They won the Manchester League again in 1906–07, and moved to their current Moss Lane ground in 1910.[2]
In 1911 the club joined Division Two of the Lancashire Combination.[3] They finished as runners-up in their first season in the division, only missing out on the title on goal average and earning promotion to Division One.[3] They remained in Division One until World War I. When football resumed in 1919, the club were founder members of the Cheshire County League, where they remained until World War II, the highlights being finishing as runners-up in 1934–35 and 1935–36 and a League Cup win in 1932–33.[2][3] In 1934–35 they reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time, losing 1–0 at Gainsborough Trinity.[3]
After missing out the 1945–46 season, they rejoined the Cheshire County League in 1946, achieving little success until the 1960s, when Altrincham director Noel White hired Freddie Pye as manager. A key turning point in the history of the club is often cited as the signing of Jackie Swindells in 1965, who in his first full season (1965–66) scored 82 goals.[5] helping Altrincham to the first of back-to-back Cheshire County League titles, scoring over 120 goals in the league in both seasons. After finishing as runners-up in 1967–68, they were founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968.[3]
They reached the semi-finals of the FA Trophy in 1976–77, losing 2–1 to Scarborough in a second replay;[3] the season also saw them apply for election to the Football League for the first time, but they received only 12 votes compared to the 27 received by the elected Wimbledon.[6] The following season they went one better in the FA Trophy, reaching the Wembley final, where they beat Leatherhead 3–1. In 1978–79 they finished as runners-up in the Northern Premier League and applied for election to the Football League again. Although they finished as the top non-League club in the ballot, they received only 13 votes to the 37 received by Halifax Town, the lowest-placed Football League club.[6] Instead, Altrincham became founder members of the Alliance Premier League, the top level of non-League football, the winner of which would be the sole non-League nomination for future Football League election ballots.
The league’s inaugural season saw Altrincham crowned champions.[3] In the subsequent elections to the Football League, the club missing out by a single vote, receiving 25 to Rochdale’s 26; this was considered especially unfortunate as the club had been promised the votes of Grimsby Town and Luton Town, but the Grimsby representative was prevented from voting by being in the wrong part of the meeting room, whilst the Luton representative arrived too late after a mix-up over the start time.[7]
