Full name | Winsford United Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | The Blues |
Founded | 1883 (as Over Wanderers) |
Ground | St. Luke's Barton Stadium, Winsford |
Capacity | 3,000 (200 seated) |
Chairman | Mark Loveless |
Manager | Lee Duckworth |
League | North West Counties League Premier Division |
2015–16 | North West Counties League Premier Division, 14th |
Winsford United Football Club are a semi-professional football club based in Winsford, Cheshire, England. The club was founded in 1883 and are nicknamed The Blues. The club is currently a member of the North West Counties League Premier Division, with home matches played at St. Luke's Barton Stadium.
Winsford United were founded in 1883, as Over Wanderers and played football in the Welsh Combination Football League. They changed their name and moved to their current ground, the Barton Stadium (then called the Bean Latham Playing Field), a few years later. However, after excessive spending, the club soon folded.
They re-formed just before the outbreak of the First World War, and re-grouped after this had finished under a committee led by Mr. R. G. Barton, becoming a founder member of the Cheshire League. From then until the late 1970s, Winsford United played football locally in Cheshire. Highlights of this period included one FA Cup first round appearance, against Peterborough United, and Cheshire league wins in 1920–21 and 1976–77. During this period, in the late 1970s, the club also reached the quarter finals of the FA Trophy and featured future Welsh international goalkeeper Neville Southall.
The Cheshire League merged with other regional divisions to become the North West Counties Football League in 1982, with Winsford doing sufficiently well to enter the Northern Premier League Division One upon its formation in 1987. They were promoted from that in 1992, and enjoyed their highest ever finish as runners up of the Northern Premier League Premier Division in 1992–93. They also reached the FA Cup First Round for a second time, losing to Wrexham, and won the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup.