ABOUT US

HISTORY

Chadderton FC was originally formed in 1946 under the name of Burnley Lane Estate Juniors, who joined the Middleton Youth League and played on Parkway on the Parkway Estate.

In 1947, an Open Age team was also formed and both teams moved to Mill Brow and adopted the name Millbrow Football Club. They played at the side of the canal at Mills Hill and changed at the Rose of Lancaster Pub.

Later they moved to Broadway changing their name to North Chadderton Amateurs, and changed at the Chadderton Arms Pub.

The Club adopted its present name, Chadderton FC in 1957.

The Club started life in the Oldham Amateur League, winning the Challenge Cup in 1954/55.

The following season the Club joined the Manchester Amateur League and won the League Championship in their first season.

After winning the League Championship again in 1962/63, Chadderton then joined the Manchester League winning the Second Division title in their first season 1963/64 and gaining promotion to the First Division.

The Club won the League's Murray Shield in 1964/65, their first season in Division One, and then the League title in 1966/67.

1969/70 Chadderton FC won the Manchester League Gilgryst Cup.

During the 1970's the Clubs only honours came in the form of the Manchester Challenge Trophy which they won in 1971/72, but failed to retain it in the following season, finishing runners-up.

Chadderton made the step into a higher grade of football in 1980 when they joined the Lancashire Combination. The Club made a good start in this league, finishing runners-up in 1981/82.

In 1982, Chadderton became one of the founder members of the North West Counties Football League, following the merger of the Lancashire Combination and the Cheshire County League.

The Club gained promotion to Division One in 1989/90 after finishing third in the league, but were relegated the following season.

Promotion came once again in 1992/93 but, after failing to meet ground grading requirements, were relegated in 1998/99.

Chadderton's proudest moments have come in seeing the progression of its former players, such as former England captain David Platt, Former Leeds United andCrystal Palace player, John Pemberton and Northern Ireland International, Steve Jones.

Former player Mike Ford forged a successful career in both codes of Rugby and Mark Owen of Take That, also once pulled on the red shirt of Chadderton FC!

Off the field in 2007, the Club was the subject of a take-over by local businessmen Craig Halliwell and Tony Bhatti, the joint owners of The HB Property Group Limited (previously The Halliwell Bhatti Group) which is the parent company of the local property development company Hillstone Developments Limited.

The members of Chadderton voted overwhelmingly in October 2006 for the take-over to go ahead and after 10 long months the legalities were finally completed in August 2007.

In August 2009 Chadderton's association with The HB Property Group Limited was terminated and Chadderton Football Club reverted to a members club run by the people for the people.

In 2013 Paul Buckley, Chadderton FC Manager since December 2005 was forced to retire as the Manager due to ill health after steering the Club to a number of top 5 positions, in his time at the Club, also reaching the semi finals of the League Cup and the Divisional Cup.

Steve Patterson and Mark Cook were appointed as Joint Managers from 2013-2014 season together with Ben Greenidge as Player/Assistant Manager and Matthew McNeill as Team Coach. The duo led Chadderton to a good run in the FA Vase in 2014/15 as well as reaching the NWCFL Division One Play-Offs in the same season where they were defeated by AFC Darwen. At the end of 2015/16 the duo stood down due to family and work commitments.

In May 2016 ambitious Mark Howard was appointed as manager, bringing with him as his assistant Ian Hulme. Mark joined the club after a 3 year spell at Royton Town in the Manchester League, where he had achieved success including the Gilgryst Cup and an appearance in the Lancashire FA Amateur Shield Final.

In 2016/17, his first season at the club, Mark led the team to a final league position just outside the play-offs, and a narrow defeat on penalties to City of Liverpool FC in the semi-final of the Macron League Cup, scoring a club record 128 goals along the way. With a new playing surface being laid in the 2017 close season, and lots of plans for the development of the club, the future looks very bright indeed.

A year later, Chadderton FC and Mark Howard parted company. David Fish was appointed as his successor in October 2017 and alongside his assistant Lee Ashworth, he led a young side to a 16th place finish in the Hallmark Security League First Division table, despite toying with the prospect of relegation for half of the campaign. The following two seasons saw them finish 16th and 12th before an offer came for them to move to Mossley AFC.

Chadderton were once again on the look for new management and after many applications and interviews the current team of Carl Taylor and Ben Grenidge came in as joint managers with Mark Cook "cookie" in his second spell as assistant manager. All of them playing at this level and for Chadderton in the past before going in to managing local sides Royton and Heyside in the Manchester League.

In their first season, 2020/21, the world was hit with Covid and after only 7 games the league was halted. In the 2021/22 season they managed a respectable 11th as they started to build their squad.

They introduced Michael Ward on to the coaching staff who delivered on a more planned approach set by the managers for the 2022/23 campaign. Also joining the coaching staff was Phil McGrath who was one of the players and ex Oldham Athletic.

With no budget but with a galvanised dressing room they went on to finish 2nd pushing eventual league winners Pilkington right up to the final game and just missing automatic promotion by 2 points with an impressive 23 game unbeaten run in the mix.

This saw us enter the play off's high on confidence, firstly beating 5th place Euxton Villa on penalties followed by FC St Helens, again on penalties, in the play off final. Why "because we had "Joey Oldham". The goal keeper just one of the heroes of both play off games but his saves sent Chadderton to the NWCFL Premier Division. The highest level for the club in the leagues current format.

Celebrations were epic to say the least and the staff and lads went off to enjoy a well earned holiday together!

Now we look forward to get going in the packed premier division. #UPTHECHAD