Alfreton Town F.C.
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| Full name | Alfreton Town Football Club | |||
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| Nickname(s) | The Reds | |||
| Founded | 1959 | |||
| Ground | North Street, Alfreton | |||
| Capacity | 3,600 (1,500 seated) | |||
| Chairman | Wayne Bradley | |||
| Manager | Nicky Law | |||
| League | National League North | |||
| 2014–15 | Conference Premier, 21st (relegated) |
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| Website | Club home page | |||
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Alfreton Town Football Club is an English football club based in Alfreton, Derbyshire. The club participates in the National League North, the sixth tier of English football.
The club was reformed after a merger between Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alfreton United in 1959. The new club was admitted into the Central Alliance North Division One in 1959, and within two seasons entered the Midland Counties League.
In 1970, after a few seasons of finishing near the top, they won the league title, and won it again in 1973 and 1977. After the Midland League and the Yorkshire League merged in 1982, they won the Northern Counties East League in 1985, division champions in 1987, and joined the Northern Premier League in 1988.
In 2003, the club won the First Division and the Derbyshire Senior Cup. After this turn of events, they won promotion to the Conference North. Alfreton have played in the Conference Premier since the 2011–12 season after sealing promotion by winning the Conference North title.
Contents
History
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The present Alfreton Town Football Club was formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alfreton United Football Clubs. The newly constituted club, playing on a new ground on North Street provided by the local council, was admitted directly to the Central Alliance Division One (North) and progressed sufficiently in the first two seasons to gain entry to the re-formed Midland Counties League.
The record attendance at the North Street ground of 5,023 was recorded for the visit of Matlock Town in 1960. After holding the wooden spoon in 1961–62 Alfreton seldom looked back and took the Midland League title in 1969–70 after several near misses.
The triumph was repeated three years later and again in 1976–77. Alfreton won the Midland League Cup in three successive seasons in the 1970s and the trophy was presented to the club as a permanent memento of the feat.
Further success came in the Northern Counties East League following the merger of the Midland and Yorkshire Leagues in 1982. They won the League Cup in season 1984–85 and were champions in 1986–87 before accepting a place in the newly formed First Division of the Northern Premier League for season 1987–88.
Early seasons in the new League were not very successful and Alfreton finished bottom of the League in 1990–91. In the 1994–95 season, after leading the table for most of the season, the Reds missed out on promotion as they contrived to lose three of their last four matches. This disappointment was forgotten the following season when they finished runners-up to Lancaster City and were promoted to the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League for the first time ever.
A two-year tenure proved difficult and after escaping a return to the Northern Premier League Division One in the 1996–97 campaign, a downward spiral struck and successive relegations saw the club slip back into the Northern Counties (East) League at the end of the 1998–99 season. The same campaign saw the club enter the FA Vase for the first time and they reached the last 16 of the competition before bowing out 1–0 at Mossley of the North West Counties League, after extra time.
The 2001–02 campaign saw Jason Maybury replaced as player/manager in late October by Chris Wilder and unprecedented success followed as the Reds landed four trophies – the Northern Counties (East) League Premier Division championship, League Cup, President's Cup and Derbyshire Senior Cup.
Wilder departed to manage former club Halifax Town in the summer of 2002 but, in his first full season in charge, manager Dave Lloyd and assistant Charlie Williamson guided the Reds to a second successive championship when they lifted the 2002–03 Northern Premier League First Division title. The season contained many highs as the side set new club records of 17 straight victories in all competitions, and went 26 games unbeaten.
A sound start to the 2003–04 Northern Premier League campaign saw them lead the way at the top for 51 days before eventually finishing a very creditable fourth as the team ended the campaign with just one defeat in their last 13 outings.
The club's highest ever finishing place comfortably earned the Reds a place in the brand new Conference North division.
A good run in the FA Cup saw them beat local rivals Matlock Town 5–0, Cammell Laird 3–2 and Worksop Town 2–1 in a replay after a 1–1 draw away to reach the First Round Proper for the first time in 30 years. Football League Two side Macclesfield Town provided the opposition at the Impact Arena and 2251 spectators saw Mark Sale bundle the ball over the line for a last minute equaliser that earned a replay in Cheshire. Unfortunately, despite giving a very good account of themselves Alfreton went down 2–0 in the replay.
In the 2006–07 season Alfreton were forced to cut their budget twice to keep the club financially stable, firstly in the summer and then a second time a few months later into the campaign.[1] The financial constraints meant that the squad was light in numbers and the situation was compounded when manager Gary Mills left the club 20 months into a three-year contract to return to former club Tamworth in January 2007.[2] His assistant Darron Gee presided over one game, a win, before following Mills to Tamworth. Following Mills' departure Alfreton appointed a replacement from within the club with Marcus Ebdon taking over as player manager on 31 January until the end of the season.[3] Ebdon guided the club to a 14th place finish, matching their best ever performance in non league's second highest tier. At the end of the season Ebdon left Alfreton, following Mills and Gee to Tamworth as youth development officer.[4]
Prior to the 2007–08 season, former Chesterfield and Bradford City boss Nicky Law took over as Reds manager in June having had two highly successful seasons with Buxton.[5] In his first season with the club Law took Alfreton to 16th and followed that with two successive 3rd place finishes, losing in the play-offs on both occasions.[1] In the 2010–11 season Alfreton finally achieved promotion to the Conference Premier by finishing as champions, ending a seven-year stay in the Conference North.[6][7]
The club attracted publicity in July 2011 after beating a Sheffield Wednesday XI 14–0 in a pre-season friendly.[8] In their first season in the Conference Premier, Alfreton finished 15th.[9]
On 3 November 2012 Alfreton beat Wrexham 4–2 in the FA Cup to reach the second round for only the second time, setting up a home tie against League One side Leyton Orient.[10][11] The match was played on 2 December at North Street in front of television cameras but Alfreton were defeated 4–2 to end their hopes of a first ever third round tie.[12][13] On 15 November the club were awarded £35,000 by the Football Conference Trust for outstanding work in the community.[14] The 2012–13 campaign saw Alfreton improve on the previous season and finish in their highest ever league position of 13th. Following the end of the season the club revealed that it would be reverting to part-time status having turned fully professional after their promotion two years ago.[15]
Players
Current squad
- As of 23 August 2015.[16]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Notable former players
- For all current and former players with a Wikipedia article see Category: Alfreton Town F.C. players
List of notable footballers who have played for Alfreton Town. Players who have appeared in over 100 senior games for the club, have gone on to play league football or are notable for another specified reason are listed below.[17]
Nathan Arnold – Made 131 appearances, scoring 32 times, between 2010 and 2013, going on to join Cambridge United.[18]- Chris Barker – Started his career in the youth team at Alfreton and has gone on to make more than 500 appearances in the Football League.
- Grant Brown – Made 106 appearances between 2003 and 2005.
- Lee Butler – Made 111 appearances between 2003 and 2005.
- Aden Flint – Spent three years at Alfreton and made two appearances for England C before signing for Swindon Town in January 2011 for £150,000, a club record fee for Alfreton.[19]
- Ryan France – Made 174 appearances before moving to Hull City in September 2003 for a fee of £15,000 and featuring in the Premier League.
- Liam Hearn – Scored 74 goals in 108 appearances and appeared for England C before moving to Grimsby Town for an undisclosed fee.
- Anthony Howell – Played for Alfreton between 2009 and 2011 before moving to Mansfield Town where he has played in League Two.[20]
- Kyle McFadzean – Made two appearances for England C in 2009 and signed for Crawley Town in August 2010 for a "significant fee".[21]
- Colin Prophett – Made 158 appearances.
- Theo Streete – Made 116 appearances, scoring twice between 2011 and 2013.[22]
Club officials
- As of 24 October 2013.[23]
- Board
- Chairman: Wayne Bradley
- Directors: David Gregory, Michael Hitchcock, Kev Miles, Rob Staniforth, Shane Maltby
- Coaching staff
- Manager: Nicky Law
- Assistant manager: Russ O'Neill
Honours
- For a full list of honours see the Alfreton Town website.[24]
- Conference North
- Winners: 2010–11
- Northern Premier League First Division
- Winners: 2002–03
- Runners-up: 1995–96
- Northern Counties East Football League
- Winners: 1986–87, 2001–02
- Midland Counties League
- Winners: 1969–70, 1973–74, 1976–77
- Runners-up: 1971–72, 1980–81, 1981–82
- FA Cup
- Second round proper: 2008–09, 2012–13
- Northern Counties East League Cup
- Winners: 1984–85, 2001–02
- Midland Counties League Cup
- Winners: 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74
- Runners-up: 1976–77, 1977–78
- Derbyshire Senior Cup
- Winners: 1960–61, 1969–70, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1981–82, 1994–95, 2001–02, 2002–03
- Runners-up: 1962–63, 1964–65, 1977–78, 1979–80, 1984–85, 1987–88, 1992–93, 2007–08
References
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