Statistics

Match Summary
Biggest Home Win		No home victories at present
Biggest Away Win	6-1	20/08/16 v Alsager Town (The Emirates F.A Cup)
Biggest Home Defeat	0-2	13/08/16 v Abbey Hey (Premier Division)
Biggest Away Defeat	1-5	27/08/16 v Bootle (Premier Division)
Highest Drawn Game	3-3	03/09/16 v Whitby Town (A) (The Emirates F.A Cup)
Highest Aggregate Scoreline	7	20/08/16 6-1 v Alsager Town (A) (The Emirates F.A Cup)

 

League Season at a Glance
	Home		Away		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%
Played	2		2		4
Won	0	0.00%	1	50.00%	1	25.00%
Drawn	1	50.00%	0	0.00%	1	25.00%
Lost	1	50.00%	1	50.00%	2	50.00%
Scored	2	1.00	3	1.50	5	1.25
Conceded	4	2.00	5	2.50	9	2.25

 

Progression in Cup Competitions
The Emirates F.A Cup	1st Qualifying Round Replay	1-2	Whitby Town	(H)
The Buildbase FA Vase	1st Qualifying Round	1-4	Runcorn Town	(A)
The Macron Cup	1st Round	v	Atherton LR	(H)
	To be played on Sat 01/10/16

 

Home Attendance Summary
Highest Attendance	270	05/09/16 v Whitby Town (The Emirates F.A Cup)
Lowest Attendance	137	13/08/16 v Abbey Hey (Premier Division)
Average Attendance	3 games	213

 

Number of Games Since
Last Win	5 games
Last Defeat	0 games
Goalless Draw	0 games
Score Draw	2 games
Scored A Goal	0 games
Clean Sheet	6 games

 

Scored / Conceded This Season
	Scored		Conceded
	#	%	#	%
None	1	11.11%	1	11.11%
One	3	33.33%	2	22.22%
Two	3	33.33%	3	33.33%
Three	1	11.11%	1	11.11%
Four	0	0.00%	1	11.11%
Five or more	1	11.11%	1	11.11%

 

When the Goals Went In
	For		Against		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%
0-15	2	11.11%	1	7.14%	3	9.38%
16-30	2	11.11%	3	21.43%	5	15.63%
31-45	2	11.11%	2	14.29%	4	12.50%
46-60	3	16.67%	3	21.43%	6	18.75%
61-75	5	27.78%	2	14.29%	7	21.88%
76-90	4	22.22%	3	21.43%	7	21.88%
90-105	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%
105-120	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%

 

History

Winsford United have a long and proud history, having been formed way back in 1883. In those early days, the club was called Over Wanderers and competed in the Welsh Combination Football League. After a few seasons, the club changed to its present name and its present ground - Barton Stadium - although it was called Great Western Playing Field at the outset. The club brought on many good players during this period and after losing several players to Football League clubs, they experienced a somewhat unsuccessful spell that resulted in the club folding.

United reformed in 1913 but it was short lived as World War One broke out. After the cessation of hostilities, United regrouped with under Mr R G Barton (hence Barton Stadium) and the club became a founder member of the Cheshire League, winning the Championship in its second season. That was to be one of the few successes as the Blues struggled to survive both on and off the field. During the War, Barton Stadium was almost stripped bare to aid the war effort. After the war, United became a Limited company and the 1950’s saw the glory days on Non-League football when crowds of over 3000 were the norm. In 1959 Winsford won the Cheshire Senior Cup against Ellesmere Port Town in front of a 12,000 crowd at Gresty Road.

Under John Williams in the 1970’s they had the most successful period in their history winning the Cheshire League and the Challenge Cup on several occasions. In 1974 they reached the Senior Cup final again, this time against the then-mighty Macclesfield Town. The final was an epic with three replays and the Silkmen only clinching it after extra time in the fourth match. All the ties were played in front of crowds of over 3,500.

The Blues won the Cheshire Senior Cup again in 1980 with a 4-1 victory over local rivals Witton Albion. The goalkeeper in that final was Neville Southall who was then was sold to Bury for £6,000. A sell on clause later netted United a club record figure of around £30,000 when he moved to Goodison Park.

The Cheshire League merged into the North West Counties and the Northern Premier League formed a first division in 1987/8. The Blues were invited to join but they never really set the place on fire, seventh place being the best achieved. In January 1991, Winsford were bottom of the NPL First Division and facing a drop back down to the NWCFL.

The club then pulled a masterstroke by appointing Mike McKenzie as team manager. The Blues lost only four more games and avoided the drop. A piece of silverware was added when they beat Northwich Vics in the local cup final. The following season, 1991/92, they gained promotion to the Premier Division, finishing as runners up and reaching the First Round of the FA Cup for only the third time in the club’s history. Season 1992/93 will go down in United’s folklore as ‘Macca’s’ men won an astonishing five trophies - the NPL Challenge Cup, NPL President’s Cup, Cheshire Senior Cup, Mid-Cheshire Senior Cup and NPL Runners Up Cup. The Blues finished second to Southport and their points total is a record for the most points accrued without winning the title. Sadly the team then broke up in the summer of 1993 when Mike McKenzie was lured into Conference football. Three of the side joined pro clubs - Darren Sheridan (Barnsley), Wayne Collins (Crewe) and Jon Whitney (Huddersfield).

The club was given a boost during the summer of 1996 when they received nearly £90,000 from the sale of Wayne Collins to Sheffield Wednesday from Crewe Alexandra. Three seasons later under the management of Dalton Steele, (in only his first season at the club) United finished seventh in the league and lifted the Mid-Cheshire Senior Cup. Season 1998/1999 saw Dalton Steele leave for Chorley half way through the campaign, taking nearly all the team with him; Mark Came took over as stand-in Manager and finished the season off with a makeshift side. The club received another tremendous boost early in 1999 when goalkeeper Andy Oakes who had signed for Hull City for a modest fee but with a 25% sell-on clause was signed by Derby County for £480,000 giving Winsford a record amount for a Non-League sell-on clause. The board of directors were determined that this money was to be spent sensibly on improving the infrastructure of the club, the first move being to install Football League standard floodlights.

There followed a period of consolidation in the early 2000’s and it was a question of survival under managers Alan Walker and Gary Thomas. However relegation could not be avoided and Winsford found themselves in Division Two

It was decided a change of policy was needed and The Blues concentrated on recruiting and developing local talent. To this end Dave Twite was brought in as Manager with Roy Sweeney as his assistant and together they sorted out the best young players in the area and concentrated on a policy of fitness and skill. The partnership gave Winsford three successful seasons; however, promotion was missed each season by just a single point.

It was time for a fresh start and Chris Willcock and John Flanagan took over the team and the Blues led the table from early season right up to the end when they were promoted to Division One as champions. Surprisingly Chris and John left at the end of the season and moved to Woodley Sports, taking the best players with them.

Once again Winsford were on the lookout for a new Manager and this time they turned to the Liverpool area for Joe Gibiliru who had managed St Helens Town in the First Division. Joe was faced with rebuilding the team and in spite of this he guided the team to a respectable 12th place.

Experienced players were brought in for the 2008-2009 season and this has had an immediate effect with several good performances but it was not to last and the team fought a desperate battle against relegation.

A fresh start was made for the 2009-2010 season and once again Winsford turned to local talent with Terry Murphy as Manager and Mike Alcock and Tony Ledwards as Assistant Managers. Unfortunately both Terry and Mike finished with health problems and Tony was handed the Manager’s job.
It was still a struggle with a team of youngsters and Dave Twite returned to the hot seat and saved them from relegation, winning his first six matches in charge.

It was felt it was time for a change and so the club advertised for a new management team.

After interviewing several very good applicants the club was approached by former Manager Chris Willcock and after an interview he was handed the reins with Ian Street appointed his Assistant. He immediately set about concentrating on the player’s fitness and also made some very important signings. Once again there was an air of optimism at the Barton Stadium. The optimism was justified as the club spent most of the early part of the season at the top of the table and, playing attractive football, the crowds began to return. There was a shock at the beginning of February however and more than a little touch of déjà vu when Willcock announced he was once again leaving to take charge at Woodley Sports, leaving Ian Street in charge. The club finished the season in a creditable third place and were victorious in the Challenge Cup Final defeating New Mills 1-0.

Ian Street remained in charge for the 2011-2012 season and Kevin Bircumshaw was appointed as his Assistant. The team made a great start to the season, spending several weeks at or near the top of the table and promotion looked a distinct possibility. However a series of suspensions and injuries saw the team have a bad run in the weeks leading up to Christmas gaining just two points from a possible twenty-four. The form was recovered in the New Year but the gap had become too great and Winsford ended the season in seventh place. The summer break saw Ian Street decide to take a post closer to home and he accepted the job of Manager at Ashton Athletic. The Manager’s position was advertised and although there were many creditable applicants the board had no hesitation in appointing former Flixton Manager Lloyd Morrison with Kevin Bircumshaw remaining as his Assistant.

There was also a tremendous boost at the start of the 2012/2013 season when Winsford Town Council became the club’s main sponsor, a relationship that promised to last for many years. The season was one of the most successful for years with the club finishing 5th in the league and defeating Northwich Victoria in the final of the Mid-Cheshire Senior Cup. The summer of 2013 saw great changes taking place at the stadium with the news that 1874 Northwich were to share the ground and their enthusiastic supporters helped to bring the ground up to a high standard, Also E.ON adopted the club for their 2013 Community Project and carried out a great refurbishment of the facilities including a new toilet block, a first aid suite and help in restoring the floodlights. They also supplied the materials for all the maintenance work that had to be carried out.

However, with everything in place for a serious assault on the league title and over £20,000 spent on improving the facilities and pitch, the club was rocked when two weeks before the start of the season Lloyd Morrison announced he was going to Mossley AFC as Joint Manager and not only that, he expected to take sixteen registered players with him. This led to an acrimonious situation between the two clubs with Mossley unable to register the players and Winsford refusing to allow their dual registration. Eventually an agreement was reached on Winsford’s terms.

The board acted quickly to appoint Eddy Haslam as Manager with Rob Byrne as his Assistant and Kevin Bircumshaw remaining as coach. With only a couple of weeks to put a team together Eddy worked hard to bring in a squad of quality players to begin the campaign. The early results were quite remarkable considering the lack of pre-season preparation time and runs in the FA Cup and FA Vase have given the club a boost. The team had been struggling in the league and after some poor results the manager left by mutual consent. The post was advertised and there were over twenty applicants, however, the Assistant Manager Rob Byrne and Coach Kevin Bircumshaw said they wanted to give it a go and so they were put in charge on a match by match agreement. Following three important victories they were given the post on a permanent basis.

The 2013-2014 season saw Winsford United enter a ground share agreement with 1874 Northwich, a team put together by disillusioned supporters of Northwich Victoria, a venture that was to prove beneficial for both clubs.

The Management team was retained for the following season and once again there was an air of optimism at the Barton Stadium. The 2014-2015 season saw mixed fortunes but in the end the team finished in a respectable 12th place.

The summer of 2015 saw a frenzy of activity off the field with much work being undertaken on the pitch in the hope of resolving the problems with flooding that blighted much of the previous season, particularly important with 1874 Northwich agreeing to stay at the Barton Stadium for a further two seasons.

The new season also saw two important developments within the community with an Under-21’s team being entered in the Cheshire Under-21’s League and the welcoming under the Winsford umbrella of Winsford Wolves VIFC, a visually impaired team.