Nelson F.C.
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| Full name | Nelson Football Club |
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| Nickname(s) | The Admirals, Blues |
| Founded | 1881 |
| Ground | Victoria Park, Lomeshaye Way Nelson |
| Capacity | 2,000 (300 seated) |
| Chairman | Fayyaz Ahmed MBE |
| Manager | Al Norwood |
| League | North West Counties League Premier Division |
| 2015–16 | North West Counties League Premier Division, 16th |
Nelson F.C. are an English football club, based in Nelson, Lancashire. They are currently members of the North West Counties League Premier Division, and play their home matches at Victoria Park, Lomeshaye Way. They are full members of the Lancashire County Football Association.
The club was founded in 1881. They were founder members of the Lancashire League in the 1889–90 season, finishing in 4th place. They were Lancashire League champions in 1895–96, winning 22 out of 30 games, scoring 105 goals, and runners-up two seasons later in 1897–98. However, the club folded during the 1898–99 season and their record for that season expunged when they were expelled by the Lancashire FA. They rejoined the Lancashire League in the 1900–01 season, finishing 6th. In 1901–02 they joined the Lancashire Combination. In 1903–04 the league expanded with two divisions, and Nelson played in Division One. However, after finishing 18th in 1906–07 they were relegated to Division Two, where they stayed for just one season before being promoted back to Division One. The club closed down in 1916, when bailiffs were called in they remained closed during World War I until they reformed in 1918 joining the Central League in 1919–20 where they stayed for just two seasons.
In 1921, the club joined the Football League as a founder member of the Third Division North. Their first league game, a 2–1 defeat to the now-defunct Wigan Borough attracted a record attendance of 9,000 on 27 August 1921. And their first season in the Football League, 1921–22, ended with a 16th-place finish, although they struggled with comparatively low attendances.
The following season, 1922–23, proved to be the most successful in the club's history, when they finished as champions of the Third Division North, earning promotion on 24 April 1923 with a 2–0 home win over Wrexham and were promoted to the Second Division, the first and only time the club played in a national league. In preparation for the new season in the Second Division the club went on a pre-season tour to Spain in the summer of 1923, winning two of their games, beating Real Oviedo 2–1 and Real Madrid 4–2 making them the first English team to beat Real Madrid in Spain. Their stay in the Second Division was short-lived as they finished 21st (out of 22) in 1923–24 and were relegated back to the Third Division North. They were though the first team to score at high-flying Blackpool and also beat eventual champions Leeds United at home. They struggled though all season with their first away win not coming until March when they beat Manchester United. The following season they finished as runners-up to Darlington on their return to the Third Division North, but it was to be the last time the club seriously threatened to gain promotion back to a nationwide league.
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