Club history
A Northwich club that traces its first match to October 1887, spent almost eighty years at the Central Ground in the middle of the town and has played at Wincham Park since 1989.
Northwich, Cheshire · Founded 1887
Witton Albion football history
The story of Witton Albion Football Club, told from the club’s own records: how a Northwich side that traces its first match to 1887 moved from the Central Ground to Wincham Park, won the Northern Premier League, spent three seasons in the Football Conference and walked out at Wembley in an FA Trophy final.
- First recorded match
- 26 October 1887
- Home town
- Northwich, Cheshire
- Grounds
- Central Ground to 1989, then Wincham Park
- Colours
- Red and white stripes
A non-league club with a long memory
Witton Albion come from Witton, a district of the mid-Cheshire salt town of Northwich. Several local teams carried the Witton name in the 1880s; the club that survives can be traced to a match played on 26 October 1887, although 1890 was for many years given as its founding date. From a pitch beside the parish church vicarage the club moved twice before settling in 1910 on the site off Witton Street that became the Central Ground, its home for almost eighty years. The full story of the moves, and of the 1989 switch to a new stadium at Wincham, is on the club history page.
On the pitch Albion were founder members of the Cheshire County League after the First World War and became one of its strongest sides in the decade after the Second, winning the championship three times and the league and cup double in 1953–54. They joined the Northern Premier League in 1979, won it in 1990–91 by a sixteen-point margin and played in the Football Conference, then the top level of non-league football, from 1991 to 1994. Every league the club has played in, and every title, is set out in league history and honours.
The early 1990s were also the club’s great cup years. Witton reached three FA Trophy semi-finals in a row and played Colchester United in the 1992 final at Wembley; in the FA Cup they beat Football League opposition for the only time, knocking out Halifax Town in a replay, and hosted Bolton Wanderers in a televised first-round tie. Those runs, the Cheshire Senior Cup record and the players who went on to the Football League are covered in Witton Albion in the FA Cup, FA Trophy and Cheshire Senior Cup.
League history and honours
From the Northwich and District League in 1892 to three Cheshire County League titles, the Northern Premier League championship of 1990–91 and three seasons in the Football Conference: the club's league record, with a season-by-season table from 1989–90.
FA competitions
Three FA Cup second-round appearances, a televised tie with Bolton Wanderers, three FA Trophy semi-finals in three years and a Wembley final against Colchester United in 1992, plus the players who went on from Witton to the Football League.
Club profile 2007–09
A snapshot of Witton Albion from its own website in 2007–09: the people who ran the club, the sponsors on the shirts and stands, how to find Wincham Park and what it cost to get in, with a note on the club today.
Key dates
- 1887The match on 26 October from which the present club traces its history.
- 1910Move to the ground off Witton Street, bought outright in 1920 and renamed the Central Ground.
- 1919Founder members of the Cheshire County League.
- 1953–54Cheshire County League champions for the third time in six seasons, completing a league and cup double.
- 1979Promotion to the Northern Premier League.
- 1989The Central Ground is sold for redevelopment and the club moves to Wincham Park.
- 1990–91Northern Premier League champions; promotion to the Football Conference.
- 1992FA Trophy finalists at Wembley against Colchester United.
- 2007–08Runners-up in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, beaten on penalties in the promotion play-offs.
Dates are taken from the club’s own published history and checked against independent football records; each linked page lists its sources.
Results, tables and squads, 2006–2009
The former club website listed its fixtures and results season by season. The whole of 2007–08 survives, with every score and attendance: the campaign in which Albion led the Northern Premier League for months before losing out to Fleetwood Town. Those lists are preserved here as tables, alongside the 2008–09 league table and the squads the club listed.
Fixtures and results
The club's own fixture lists for three seasons, transcribed from archived copies of its website: the whole of 2007–08, when Witton finished runners-up with 89 points, most of the relegation season that followed, and the opening weeks of 2006–07.
League table 2008–09
The final standings of the division in the season Witton Albion were relegated, as shown on the club's match console in June 2009 and confirmed against the published record, with the league's leading scorers.
Squads 2007–09
Two very different squads: the settled group of 22 that finished second in the Northern Premier League in 2007–08, and the 48 players who passed through Wincham Park during the relegation season that followed.
Match reports from 2008
Nine matches for which the club’s own report survives: the end of the 2007–08 title race and play-off, and the first weeks of 2008–09. Each page gives the line-up, scorers and attendance with a new summary of the game.
- Witton Albion 0–3 Fleetwood Town24 March 2008
- Witton Albion 6–0 Lincoln United29 March 2008
- Witton Albion 1–0 Guiseley12 April 2008
- Witton Albion 0–3 Worksop Town26 April 2008
- Witton Albion 1–1 Buxton29 April 2008
- Prescot Cables 1–3 Witton Albion19 August 2008
- Witton Albion 0–2 Hednesford Town25 August 2008
- Guiseley 2–0 Witton Albion30 August 2008
- Witton Albion 2–0 Ilkeston Town2 September 2008
News, video and life around the club
What the club told its supporters between 2006 and 2009: signings and departures, managerial changes, programme columns, the match video service it ran for supporters who could not get to games, and how it raised money away from the pitch.
News 2006–08
What the club told its supporters over eighteen months, from a race night to raise money for the manager's budget to the fortnight in May 2008 when the manager and the chairman both walked out. The stories are summarised, not reproduced.
News 2008–09
The last version of the club website kept a news archive of just ten stories, nine of them match reports. It stopped on 3 September 2008, two months before the manager was dismissed and seven before the club was relegated.
Match video (WATV)
Long before streaming was routine in non-league football, Witton Albion posted goals and interviews from almost every match on its website. This page records what the service offered and which games it covered. The footage itself was never archived.
Sponsorship and commercial
A historical record of the sponsorship packages Witton Albion advertised in 2008 and 2009, the local firms that backed the club and the fundraising nights held at Wincham Park. None of it is on offer from this archive.
About this archive
Independent historical archive of Witton Albion football information. It is not the club’s official website and is not run by the club. This address was the club’s own website in the 2000s; the pages here were rebuilt from copies kept by the Internet Archive, rewritten in new words and checked against published football records, so that links made to the old site over the years still lead somewhere useful.
Each page says which old address it was restored on, which archived copy it draws on and which sources its facts were checked against. Read how the archive was built or browse the index of every restored page.
Looking for the club as it is now? Witton Albion still play at Wincham Park and compete in the Northern Premier League. Fixtures, tickets and news are on the club’s own official website, wittonalbionfc.co.uk.