Fairfield Athletic

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Fairfield Athletic (officially: Fairfield Athletic Football Club , often also Fairfield Football Club ) was an English football club from Fairfield , today's suburb of Droylsden in Greater Manchester , which applied three times unsuccessfully for admission to the Football League .

history

The club, which was founded in the mid-1880s, joined the Lancashire League in 1892 , which at the time had professional status and from which several clubs joined in the following years with Liverpool FC (1893), Bury FC (1894) and Blackpool FC (1896) the Football League were included. Fairfield finished the first two seasons in the Lancashire League in ninth place in the table among twelve teams. The 1894/95 season then became the most successful in the club's history. In addition to the surprising win of the championship, they reached the first main round of the FA Cup for the only time , but lost 1:11 to the “Team of all Talents” of Sunderland AFC , which at that time dominated the English championship. In addition, the team made it to the semi-finals of the Manchester Senior Cup .

Because the regular league operations did not generate sufficient income, the club regularly played friendly matches against attractive opponents during this time, but had to do without Football League clubs for a while because they boycotted the club because of numerous attempts to poach their players. After winning the championship, the club made its first attempt to move up to the Football League in 1895 and stood for election at the annual general meeting, but probably remained almost without supportive votes. Even after the first failed attempt, efforts continued to get into the Football League. A committee of the Football League visited the "Gransmoor Road" venue and the local council approved the necessary construction of grandstands on the previously undeveloped site. Also the following two seasons Fairfield belonged to the top teams of the Lancashire League and finished in third (1896) and second place (1897). At the end of both seasons they reapplied for admission to the Football League, with three supporters each without a chance. The club finally disbanded during the 1897/98 season.

literature

  • Dave Twydell: Denied FC Yore Publications, Harefield 2001, ISBN 1-874427-98-4 , pp. 80-81 .

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