Frickley Athletic F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Frickley Athletic


fullname = Frickley Athletic Football Club
nickname = The Blues
founded = 1910 (as Frickley Colliery)
ground = Westfield Lane
South Elmsall
capacity = 2,087 | chairman = Peter Bywater
manager = Billy Heath
league = Northern Premier League Premier Division
season = 2007-08
position = Northern Premier League Premier Division,
14th
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Frickley Athletic F.C. are a football club based in South Elmsall, in West Yorkshire, England. They were established in 1910 as Frickley Colliery F.C., and changed to their present name in 1974. Initially they played in the Sheffield Association League and the Yorkshire League, before joining the Midland League, where they spent many years. In 1960 Frickley became the only Yorkshire side ever to play in the Cheshire County League, returning to the Midland League in 1970.Frickley joined the Northern Premier League in 1976. Frickley spent seven seasons at the pinnacle of non-league football, the Football Conference (for six of those years still known as the "Alliance Premier League"), with a highest finish of 2nd place in 1985-86 before being relegated the next season. They currently play in the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

They reached the third round of the FA Cup in the 1985-86 season, following an away win at league club Hartlepool United. The club went on to be eliminated from the competition by Rotherham United. This is their best performance in the competition so far achieved before a record crowd of 5,800.

At that time the club had 4 players in the England Non League team - Paul Shirtliff, Russ Wilcox, Gary Hooley and Paul Wilson.

Frickley's home ground is found on Westfield Lane. The club are expecting substantial redevelopments to the stadium by 2010 as part of the £17m regeneration of the whole area including the former Frickley colliery site. The Club has a long association with the former colliery. The miners used to pay an amount from their wage each week which went to the club and the local cricket club. Also, the ground is famous for being overlooked by the huge colliery spoil heap.

One well known former player and manager is Geoff Sleight, who later became Chief Scout at Leeds United. Other former managers include Jim McAnearney, a former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder and Ronnie Glavin the former Celtic & Scotland midfielder. Neil Redfearn (notable for having played 790 matches in The Football League) joined the club in September 2007. Other notable names associated with the club include Mick Wadsworth, Gary Hooley and Keith Whiteley. One of the club's former players, Russ Wilcox, is assistant manager at Sheffield Wednesday.

The club is namechecked in the song "Frickley", by Chumbawamba.

The club's officials and staff are:

Chairman : Peter Bywater

Directors : Peter Bywater, Steve Shorthouse, Andrew Steel, Gareth Dando

Committee : Paul Baines, Keith Donkin, John Hardcastle, Neil Howden, Penny Wall, Mark Ainge, Marie Barnard, Malcolm Barnard

Treasurer : Andrew Steel

Company/General Secretary : Steve Pennock

Match Secretary : Ruth Simpson

Commercial Manager : Tom Grindel

First Team Manager : Billy Heath

Assistant Manager: Mark Carroll

Physio: Becky Henry-Brown

Transport

Frickley Athletic F.C. are located close to Moorthorpe railway station and South Elmsall railway station both being just a mile from the stadium on the York-Sheffield and Leeds-Doncaster/Sheffield lines.

Latitude: 53°35'18.08"NLongitude: 1°17'33.84"W

External links

* [http://www.frickleyafc.co.uk/ Official website]