Radcliffe Borough F.C.
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| Full name | Radcliffe Borough Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Boro, The Cliff, The Blues | ||
| Founded | 24 April 1949 | ||
| Ground | Stainton Park Radcliffe Greater Manchester (Capacity: 3,500) |
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| Chairman |  Bernard Manning Jnr |
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| Manager | Kevin Glendon |
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| League | Northern Premier League Division One North |
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| 2007-08 | Northern Premier League Division One North, 16th |
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Radcliffe Borough F.C. is an English football club based in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. The club was formed on 24 April 1949 and currently plays in the Northern Premier League Division One North. Radcliffe Borough reached the first round of the F.A. Cup for the first time in its history in 2000.
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[edit] History
The club was formed on 24 April 1949 at the Owd Tower Inn in Radcliffe by Jack Pickford, and became a member of the South East Lancashire Football League. After a short period in that league, the club joined the Manchester League before gaining access to the Lancashire Football Combination in 1963. In 1972, Radcliffe won the League Cup and finished third in the league. Two years later it was accepted into the Cheshire League, which subsequently became the North West Counties Football League.
The first season again brought success when Radcliffe secured the Second Division championship in front of a record Stainton Park crowd of 1,468. After one season in the First Division, Radcliffe lifted the First Division championship and made the step up into the newly formed Northern Premier League. After many years of consolidation in the league, and at times, fighting against relegation, the 1995-96 season saw an upturn in the club's fortunes, both on and off the pitch. The club, for the first time in its history, reached the last 16 of the FA Trophy, narrowly losing to Football Conference side, Gateshead 2-1.
Under present manager Kevin Glendon who has been at the club since 1990, the playing side has gone from strength to strength. Kevin is renowned for producing young players and selling them on, in total he has made £80,000 in selling players. Radcliffe achieved its highest honour in the 1996-1997 season, winning the Unibond First Division title by 2 points ahead of local rivals Leigh RMI. Unfortunately, the club's stay in the `top flight' lasted only one season. Having sacrificed all its revenue on ground development, to allow it to be promoted, it found itself without the resources to invest in quality players to stay in the division. Each year since then, however, it has competed for promotion, finishing regularly in the top six.
For the first time in its history the club reached the first round of the FA Cup in 2000, losing 1-4 to York City in a match played at Gigg Lane, the home of Bury, in front of a crowd of 2,495. Boro again missed out on promotion in the 2001-2002 season when after leading the division until February a poor run to the end of the season, meant that the club entered the newly formed play-offs losing to Bamber Bridge in the semi-final at Irongate.
In the 2002-2003 season Boro missed out on the championship by two points to Alfreton Town, and reached the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup, losing to Chester City in front of 1,138 at Stainton Park. Promotion was finally won thanks to the play-offs by beating North Ferriby United in the semi final and Chorley in the final at Stainton Park winning 4-2 on penalties after Chorley scored two goals in the last 10 minutes to make it 2-2 and take the game into extra time. Boro's Jody Banim got 46 goals in what was an unbelievable season for him.
With Boro back in the Northern Premier League Premier Division and a place in the newly formed Conference North up for grabs, promotion was obviously the aim. By November Boro were as high as sixth thanks to the 22 goals of Jody Banim who set an English record by scoring in 14 consecutive games. Boro sold Banim to Conference promotion chasers Shrewsbury Town for a record fee of £20,000 in December 2003, and without his goals the club slid down the table eventually finishing 19th and into the relegation play-offs beating Whitby Town on penalties 8-7 in the quarter finals, before bowing out to Burscough in the semi finals at home. In 2004/2005 the club finished 9th in the Northern Premier League. In 2004/5 Radcliffe narrowly avoided the playoffs due to the Spennymoor problem in which the team was liquidated 10 games from the end, but they could not follow this as in 2005/6 they narrowly avoided relegation on the last day as Steve Foster scored the goal that kept them in the Northern Premier League Premier Division at the expense of Bradford PA. The trend continued as, in April 2007, following the 4-0 loss to Ossett, Radcliffe lost their place in tier 3 of the NLS, being relegated to the new Northern Premier League Division One North.
[edit] 2007/2008
The club made a poor start to the 2007/08 season with only 1 point from the first 6 league games. But has started well in the FA Cup beating Lancaster City 3-0 in the preliminary round and Cammell Laird 4-1 in the 1st qualifying round, with Radcliffe being knocked out 2-1 in the 93rd minute away at Blyth Spartans, this cup luck continued in the FA Trophy as the club made the third qualifying round, beating Sutton Coldfield in the prelimenary round 3-1, Harrogate Railway 4-2 away in the First qualifying and Chasetown 1-0 at home in the Second qualifying round Replay after a goalless draw at the first game. This had become a sort of a club joke as fans have said if it were not for them, the latter two teams would not have had their cup runs if they had not beaten them. (Harrogate Railway reaching the FA Cup Second Round, Chasetown the Third and Kirkham and Wesham(now AFC Fylde) who the club had beat in this seasons Lancashire FA Cup, won the FA Vase). The run ended at Retford of the Unibond 1st division south division losing 4-1 away. The teams form had improved over the Christmas period with a 6 match unbeaten streak, which was ended against Woodley sport in January, but have only lost 5 games at the moment in the new year, and recording a 7 match unbeaten streak. which involved 2 back to back games against the Red Rebels. On 5 April, Radcliffe finally managed to elude the doubters by getting off the bottom of the table after beating Woodley 1-0. Steve Howson has also helped the club during this time as he has scored 37 goals in all competitions. The season ended with 9 games in a month, with Radcliffe winning 4 of the games. They secured their status as a Unibond team after they won 2-1 against Bridlington Town, and ended their league campaign by stopping Ossett reaching the Playoffs. The club also won the Manchester Premier Cup 2-1 against Hyde United in the final, Radcliffe also made the Final of the Unibond Presidents Cup which they lost 2-1 to FC United of Manchester.
Steve Howson was awarded the supporters player of the year,with Craig Dawson picking up the Players Player and Mike Flynn the directors award, whilst Simon Kelly was given the special recognition award for 450 appearances for the club, which he broke David Bean's record of 401 during this season.
There are problems off the field also as well with the chairman, Bernard Manning announcing that he is to step down before 1 January and left the club on the 1 November, but is still an active member of the club. However, David Murgatroyd has stepped forward that the club will still be playing next season, regardless on the division they play in and after an article in the Non League Today, have said that the club would still be going in 2058.
The season was ended on a high for Steve Howson as he was ranked 39th in the Non League Today's Top 50 Strikers list, beating players from the 3 leagues above him.
[edit] 2008/09
Radcliffe will play their 22nd season in the Unibond League, and their 2nd in the Unibond 1st Division North,and will start in the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, the 1st Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy, 1st Round of the Unibond League Cup and will also compete in the seasons Unibond Presidents Cup, Manchester Premier Cup and Lancashire FA Cup.
However, they will start the season with a new Director of Football, Gerry Luczka after Peter Coyne had left due to personal reasons. For the 1st time in several seasons they will start with the same squad that ended last season with a few additions, with both Mark and Griff Jones Completing Full Transfers to the club after successful loans last season, and Billy Dempsey and ex England Schoolboy player Tom Rutter both joining the club. Lee Unsworth may have also joined, but due to a lack of information due to the website being down this cannot be confirmed yet, but Lee appeared in the 4-1 defeat against Bury.
The Season started the same as last season with a loss against ut 3 days later saw the Boro take their 1st points of the season with a win against Mossley.September also started out badly as they lost 4 of the 6 games played in the month, but with 6 points taken from Lancaster they were placed Mid Table,however also in this month a Game against Durham was abandoned within minutes after Martyn Forrest collapsed with an epileptic seizure. Martyn is now OK and from November 22nd was back playing in the 1st team.
In October the team picked up 5 points from a possible 15 with a 6-0 win over Salford City and 2 draws against Wakefield and Colwyn Bay. Again at the end of the month they were placed 11th and 9 points off the chasing pack, placing them as shock playoff contenders.
November got off to a good start with a 1-0 win against Harrogate Railway but then fell into a 3 game losing streak. The main problem with the last 3 games was poor refereeing decisions as manager Gerry Luczka was upset with the team picking up 9 bookings and a sending off during the 2-1 loss at Harrogate that month.
December was a bad month for the club where they failed to pick up a point at all, continuing their losing streak to 6 games and a 4-1 defeat to League leaders FC Halifax Town. the Only good news to come out of this month was the return of Martyn Forrest who came on during the 2-1 loss to Ossett Albion
The losing slump continued into January, Only 2 games were called off during this time (only one for a frozen pitch) as well as a key defeat to Chorley. However the club did manage to get a shock draw against Halifax at the shay with both teams saying that Radcliffe should have won that match with ease. after an 11 game winless streak, the club finally managed to record a 3-2 victory over Promotion chasing Bamber Bridge at home. At the end of the Month, Radcliffe were 3rd from bottom with 21 points, 14 clear of Bottom team Salford City.
February sees the club visit Garforth, before 3 home games against Curzon Ashton,Lancaster and a crucial 6 pointer against Warrington and away at Salford.
In this years cups, Radcliffe have been unable to recreate their cup runs of last year, mostly being knocked out in the 1st game of the contests, Losing 3-1 to Northern County League side Winterton Rangers in the FA Cup, then being knocked out of the FA Trophy to bitter rivals FC United 1-0 in the 95th Minute. They will no longer hold the title of Champions of Manchester either as they lost 2-0 to Trafford, who coincidently also knocked Radcliffe out in the same stage in 1997 when Radcliffe lost the previous seasons final. The only cup that the team have a chance in now is the Lancashire FA Cup, Where they are semi Finalists and the lowest ranked team left in the contest.
This season saw the formation of a Sunday League team under the teams name, as well as the completion of a major renovation of the club's bar facilities.
[edit] Rivalries
Radcliffe Boro over the last few season have built up a few Rivalries against other teams. The clubs most fierce games are against Leigh Genesis and Bury F.C. due to the location of both teams, But in recent years FC United of Manchester have been seen as the most important games to win. Other Rivals include Chorley, Rossendale, Ramsbottom United, Droylsden and Ashton United.
Record against Rivals
| Opponent | Wins | Draws | Losses |
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| Bury F.C | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Leigh Genesis | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| FC United of Manchester | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Chorley | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| Rossendale United | 3 | 0 | 2 |
The current chart only features games from 2003 onwards except for Chorley, which dates back to 1997
[edit] Ownership and finances
Off the field the club is widely recognized as having made more progress than many other non-league clubs.[citation needed] With the help of grants from the Football Association, Football Foundation, Lottery Sports Fund, Club Funds and personal investments, it has so far been able to provide the following: Floodlit all weather pitches, Upgrade the terracing, New car park, Purchase the social club & Refurbish the building, Build a new sponsors lounge, Changing room block, 350-seater stand and six brand new Nationwide Conference standard floodlights. The club now claims to have one of the best non-league grounds at its level. In 2006 the club upgraded its facilities with the addition of two 3G Synthetic 6 a-side football pitches, a Sports Bar, Sports Injury Clinic, Conference and Meeting room and a refurbished Function room.
[edit] Statistics and records
Simon Kelly has made the most appearances for the club, making 450 starts. Ian Lunt has scored the most goals for the club, scoring 147 times. Their highest attendance overall came in the FA Cup first round in 2000 when they faced York City. 2,495 people went to see the game. Their highest attendance at home was against Caernarfon Town when 1,468 people went to the game. Their highest transfer fee they received was from Shrewsbury Town for £20,000 for Jody Banim. The highesy transfer fee they paid was for Gary Walker as they paid £5,000 to sign him from Buxton. The record for the most goals in a season is 46 - which is held by Jody Banim.
[edit] Players
[edit] Current squad
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[edit] Transfers 2008-9
| Player | Movement | Club moved to/come from | Fee |
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| Michael Murray | Out | Unknown | Released |
| Griff Jones | In | Bradford Park Avenue | Free(prev. on Loan) |
| Mark Jones | In | Bradford Park Avenue | Free(prev. on Loan) |
| Andy Scott | Out | Hyde United | Loan Ended |
| Lee Unsworth | In | Leigh Genesis | Free |
| Lee Connell | Out | Contract Terminated | |
| Tom Rutter | In | Youth Player |
[edit] Players in on loan
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[edit] Notable players
[edit] Honours
[edit] League
- Northern Premier League Division One champions (1): 1996–97
- Northern Premier League Division One Play Off winners (1): 2002-03
- North West Counties Football League First Division champions (1): 1984–85
- North West Counties Football League Second Division champions (1): 1982–83
- South East Lancashire League champions (1): 1980–81
- South Lancashire League Division One champions (1): 1951-52
- South Lancashire League Division Two champions (1): 1950-51
[edit] Cup
- Manchester Premier Cup winners (1) 2007-08
- South Lancashire League Shield winners (3): 1949-50, 1950-51, 1951-52
- South Lancashire Cup winners (3): 1950-51, 1952-53, 1954-55
- Lancashire League Cup winners (1): 1969-70
- Manchester League Gylchrist Cup winners (2): 1958-59, 1961-62
- Bury Amateur League Cup winners (1): 1949-50
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Radcliffe Borough at the Football Club History Database
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A.F.C. Fylde | Bamber Bridge | Chorley | Clitheroe | Colwyn Bay | Curzon Ashton | F.C. Halifax Town | Garforth Town | Harrogate Railway Athletic | Lancaster City | Leigh Genesis | Mossley | Ossett Albion | Prescot Cables | Radcliffe Borough | Rossendale United | Salford City | Skelmersdale United | Trafford | Wakefield | Warrington Town | Woodley Sports |
