Frickley Athletic F.C.

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Frickley Athletic
Frickleyathleticfc.png
Full name Frickley Athletic Football Club
Nickname(s) 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
2008-09 Northern Premier League Premier Division,
11th
Home colours
Away colours

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.

Contents

[edit] History

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.

The Westfield Lane stadium is overshadowed by the former colliery's slag heap.

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 the former assistant manager at Sheffield Wednesday, he left the club in December 09 after brain laws was sacked. In January 2010 Russ Wilcox was named assistant manager of Burnley, he joined Brain Laws who he worked with a Scunthorpe and Sheffield Wednesday.

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

The main stand at Westfield Lane.

The club's officials and staff are:

Chairman : Peter Bywater

Directors : Peter Bywater, Steve Shorthouse, Barry Johnson, Gareth Dando

Committee : Paul Baines, Keith Donkin, John Ping Pong Hardcastle, Neil Howden, Penny Wall, Mark Ainge.

Treasurer : Andrew Steel

Company/General Secretary : Steve Pennock

Match Secretary : Ruth Bradley

Commercial Manager : Tom Grindel

First Team Manager : Billy Heath

Assistant Manager: Mark Carroll

Physio: Becky Henry-Brown

[edit] Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
- England GK Ben Simpson
- England GK Adam Nicklin
- England DF Matthew Bird (on loan from Grimsby Town)
- England DF Chris Hilton
- England DF Dean Jones
- England DF Steve Heath
- England DF Lee Booth
- England DF Michael Price
- England DF Shaun Pierrepont
No. Position Player
- England MF Phil Lindley
- England MF Danny Walsh
- England MF Grant Normington (on loan from Grimsby Town)
- England MF Chris Davies
- England MF Danny Clarke
- England FW Lee Morris
- England FW Neil Towler
- England FW Chris White
- England FW Jake White

[edit] Transport

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

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

[edit] External links

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