Northwich Victoria

Northwich Victoria
	Northwich Victoria
Basic data
Surname	Northwich Victoria Football Club
Seat	Northwich
founding	1874
Colours	blue White
Website	northwichvictoriafc.com
First soccer team
Venue	Victoria Stadium ; Northwich
Places	5,088
league	North West Counties Football League
2016/17	22nd place, relegation ; Northern Premier League Division One South
home	Away

Northwich Victoria (officially: Northwich Victoria Football Club ) - also known as The Vics and The Trickies - is an English football club from Northwich , Cheshire , which has played in the North West Counties Football League , the ninth highest division in England, since 2017 . The club's venue is the 5,088-seat Victoria Stadium .

Club history

The club was founded in 1874, making it one of the oldest football clubs in England. In the early years from 1880 to 1889, the team was able to take part in the Welsh Cup six times , but remained without significant successes except for two finals in 1882 and 1889. The finals were lost against the Welsh clubs NEWI Cefn Druids and Bangor City . The club first took part in regular league operations in 1890 and played as one of the founding members of the Combination . In the season 1891/92 the second rank in the Combination was reached and for the following season the club was added to the Football League Second Division , the second highest English division at the time. After two mediocre years in the Second Division, the club returned to the Combination in 1894.

Northwich Victoria was then represented in the same league for almost 20 years, followed by inclusion in the Lancashire Combination Division Two in 1912 . After just one season, the team qualified for Division One of the Lancashire Combination. After the game was interrupted between 1915 and 1919 because of the First World War, the club changed again the league and joined the Cheshire County League . The team was represented in the league for many years; the greatest success was recorded in 1957 when Northwich was able to win the championship of the Cheshire County League.

In 1968, with the club's inclusion in the newly formed Northern Premier League, an almost 50-year era in the Cheshire County League ended. In the following eleven seasons in the Northern Premier League, Northwich was mostly able to place in the top half of the table and achieved second place in 1976/77. Winning the championship was only missed because the goal difference was one goal worse.

In 1979, the club made another league change with the entry into the newly formed Alliance Premier League , the predecessor of today's Football Conference . Northwich Victoria was able to play a total of three finals in the FA Trophy in the following years . While the team failed to Telford United in 1983, the trophy could be won for the first time a year later with the final victory over Bangor City. The third final participation succeeded in 1996. Northwich was defeated, however, against Macclesfield Town and missed the title win. The club remained even after the Alliance Premier League was renamed in 1986 to the league's current name Football Conference and mostly occupied moderate midfield ranks.

After the relegation was clearly missed in the 2003/04 season with only 23 points, Northwich were deducted ten points for the 2004/05 season due to financial difficulties. The team could not ensure relegation and rose as 19th in the Conference North . After a convincing season with winning the league, however, the club managed to get promoted again. The team stayed in the league for three years, but fell back to the Conference North after the 2008/09 season as third from bottom. In the 2009/10 season, the club continued to struggle for financial survival and received another ten-point penalty from the Football Conference. The team started the season with ten minus points.

At the end of the season, the club took twelfth place in Conference North and would have secured the league in a sporting way, but Northwich Victoria was excluded from the game of the sixth highest division due to further financial problems and then placed one league level lower in the Northern Premier League Premier Division . Because of this, the team from Harrogate Town , which was in 21st place, was able to avoid relegation. In terms of sport, the team made the 2011/12 season much more successful, which ended after 42 games with a placement in second place and regular qualification for the promotion playoffs. However, the league excluded the team due to violations of the financial guidelines of the Northern Premier League Premier Division from the playoffs and incorporated Northwich Victoria for the 2012/13 season one league level lower in the Northern Premier League Division One North.