AFC Fylde

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AFC Fylde
Template: Infobox Football Club / Maintenance / No picture
Basic data
Surname AFC Fylde
Seat Wesham
founding 1988 (as Kirkham & Wesham )
Website afcfylde.co.uk
First soccer team
Head coach EnglandEngland Jim Bentley
Venue Mill Farm
Places 6000
league National League North
2019/20   23rd place ( National League )
home
Away

The AFC Fylde (officially: AFC Fylde ) - also known as The Coasters - is an English football club from the Lancashire town of Wesham in the Borough of Fylde . The club has been playing in the National League North , the second highest division in English non-league football , since 2020 .

history

The club was formed in 1988 from the merger of the two local clubs Kirkham Town and Wesham FC and leaned under the name Kirkham & Wesham on a team that had participated in the West Lancashire League in the years before the First World War . In the West Lancashire League the place was taken over by Kirkham Town, but at the end of the first season there was relegation from Division One to Division Two . After three years in Division Two, they returned to Division One for two seasons in 1993, and after relegated in 1995 they were directly promoted again in the following season. The top tier of the league, renamed the Premier Division in 1999, was dominated by the club at will from 2000: by 2007, seven championships had been won in eight seasons, four of them in a row from 2004 to 2007; from January 2003 to October 2004 they remained unbeaten across all competitions.

With the arrival of businessman David Haythornthwaite , chairman of the Tangerine Group , who had previously unsuccessfully tried to take over Blackpool FC , a new chapter began for the club. When he took over the club, Haythornthwaite presented a 15-year plan that aims to advance to the Football League by 2022 . In 2007, the club was included in the North West Counties League , which is more athletic , and rose to the Premier Division as vice-champions of Division Two . In addition, when he took part in the FA Vase for the first time , the national cup competition for teams below the eighth league level, he won the title with a 2-1 win over Lowestoft Town in front of over 19,000 spectators at Wembley Stadium (both goals by the 17-year-old substitute Matt Walwyn ). The club then renamed itself AFC Fylde . At the end of the 2008/09 season stood a renewed promotion to Division One North of the Northern Premier League .

In November 2011, the coaching duo Dave Challinor and Colin Woodthorpe was committed, which led the club to promotion to the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League at the end of the season , two years later the play-offs made it to the Conference North . The repeated promotion failed in the play-offs in 2015 and 2016, and in 2017 they were promoted to the National League , the fifth highest division in the English league system . In addition to the league successes, there were also several notable successes in the FA Cup , for whose first main round they qualified for the first time in 2012/13 (1: 4 against Accrington Stanley ). After they were eliminated in the first main round against the Football League team in 2015 (0-2 against Plymouth Argyle ) and 2016 (1-3 against Millwall ), they qualified in 2018 with a 4-2 win over Kidderminster Harriers for the first time for the second main round, in which you failed in the third division Wigan Athletic in the replay.

In May 2018, the club played twice at London's Wembley Stadium within seven days: First they lost in the decisive play-off against Salford City (0: 3) for promotion to Football League Two , and a week later they won the final of FA Trophy 1-0 against Leyton Orient , becoming the first club to win both Vase and Trophy. Just a year later, the club was relegated to penultimate from the National League, with the season being canceled nine game days before the end due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

Mill Farm

From 2006 to 2016 the club played at £ 150,000 in Kellamergh Park in Warton , a village south of Kirkham and Wesham. In 2016 the move to the Mill Farm stadium, which is located on the northern edge of Wesham, took place. The stadium has a capacity of 6,000 and was part of an £ 18 million development plan.

In 2014 the club logo was revised. In addition to several distinctive landmarks ( Lytham Windmill , the boat as a symbol for Skippool Creek near Poulton-le-Fylde and the jet plane as a symbol for the Warton Aerodrome ), it depicts the founding year 1988 and the Latin motto Gaudeat Ager ("the field is cheerful" ), which was previously used by the Fyldes local administration.

successes

  • National League North Champion : 2016/17
  • Northern Premier League Premier Division play-off winners: 2013/14
  • Northern Premier League Division One North Champion: 2011/12
  • North West Counties League Premier Division champions: 2008/09
  • Master of the West Lancashire League : 1999/2000, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07
  • FA Trophy Winner : 2018/19
  • FA Vase Winner : 2007/08
  • Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy winners : 2010/11, 2012/13, 2013/14

League affiliation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ thesetpieces.com: The rise and rise of AFC Fylde , accessed May 5, 2019
  2. ↑ afcfylde.co.uk: Club History retrieved on May 5, 2019
  3. ↑ itsroundanditswhite.co.uk: The rise of AFC Fylde (July 21, 2016) , accessed May 5, 2019
  4. ↑ afcfylde.co.uk: Details on the New Club Crest (June 21, 2014) , accessed May 5, 2019