History

First 50 years

Formed in 1949 by Jimmy Drinkwater, the club was initially named Stockton Heath Albion and competed in the Warrington and District League until 1953, when they moved to the Mid Cheshire League. Freddie Worrall became manager at the same time, and during a 13-year spell in charge, the club won the league in 1959–60 plus the League Cup in three consecutive seasons during the 1950s. During his thirteen years at the helm, Heath were one of the most feared sides in Cheshire football, winning a string of honours including the Mid Cheshire League Championship in 1959–60, the League Cup in 1953–54, 1954–55, 1955–56 and made several appearances in the Cheshire Amateur Cup Final. Several players from this successful period went on to join Football Leagueclubs, including Ian Weir, John Green, Alan Foster and Roger Hunt, later a World Cup winner with England in 1966.

At the club’s 1961 AGM, it was decided to change the name to Warrington Town. In 1978 the club were founder members of Division Two of the Cheshire County League. When it merged into the North West Counties Football League in 1982, the club were founder members of Division Three. They finished as runners-up in the first season, earning promotion to Division Two. In 1985–86 Warrington reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase, losing 6–3 to Halesowen Town in a replay. After finishing as runners-up in Division Two in 1986–87, the club were promoted to Division One. In the same season they reached the FA Vase final, where they lost 3–2 to local rivals St Helens Town.

In 1989–90 Warrington Town won Division One, and were promoted to the Northern Premier League. In 1992–93 they reached the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy, eventually losing 2–1 at Sutton United, and also became the first Division One club to reach the final of the League Cup, losing on penalties to Winsford United. The season also saw the club sell Neil Whalley to Football League Third Division side Preston North End for a £25,000, equalling the record fee paid for a Northern Premier League player. A few weeks later Warrington also sold Liam Watson to Preston for a record £60,000.

After finishing second bottom of the league in 1996–97, the club were relegated back to Division One of the North West Counties League. The following season they were demoted, failing ground grading.[1] In the 1998–99 season, teenage striker Damien Whitehead set a new club record of 52 goals in just 42 appearances, before signing for Football League Division Three side Macclesfield Town at the end of the season.

21st century

The 1999–2000 season saw Town win the Second Division Trophy beating Tetley Walker F.C (known as The Holden Final) 2–0 at Prescot Cables, with two goals from Neal Holden, whilst the following season saw Warrington win Division Two and earn promotion back to Division One. They finished fifth in 2003–04, and were promoted to Division One of the Northern Premier League as part of the restructuring that led to the creation of the Conference North and South. When Division One was split into northern and southern sections in 2007, the club were placed in the southern division, but were moved to the northern section the following season.

In 2013–14 the club finished third in Division One North, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. However, they lost 1–0 at home to Bamber Bridge in the semi-finals.

2014-15 season

In 2014–15 the club reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in their history, where they beat League Two club Exeter City 1–0 with a 7th-minute header from defender and plasterer Craig Robinson, the brother of MK Dons manager Karl Robinson, in a giant-killing at Cantilever Park.[2] The game was shown live on BBC Two. In the second round, Warrington Town lost 0–2 at Gateshead.,[3] televised live on BT Sport.

On 30 April 2015, the club lifted its first trophy in 14 years by defeating Farsley Celtic in the final of the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup (then called the Doodson Sport Cup) at Edgeley Parkon penalties after the game finished scoreless.

Having played many games (14 in the FA Cup & NPL Challenge Cup alone), the club finished 9th in Northern Premier League Division One North.

2015-16 season

The 2015–16 season began with Warrington Town aiming for promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division for the first time in the club’s history. During the season the club set many new club records including scoring over 100 league goals and also winning over 30 league games in one season. Attendances at the club increased with a season’s average of 418 per game, including two crowds of over 1,000 for the games against Northwich Victoria and Prescot Cables, respectively.

There was to be no repeat of the previous season’s FA Cup run as Town exited at the first hurdle in late August losing to Abbey Hey F.C.

After a relatively poor start to the season, with a win, a loss and 2 draws plus the FA Cup exit, Town embarked on an unbeaten run in the league of 9 wins and a draw from end August to mid October. During this unbeaten run, manager Shaun Reid was absent through illness for much of September, with Stuart Mellish, Lee Smith and the rest of the coaching staff standing in.

In the FA Trophy, Town won through 2 rounds before losing to AFC Fylde in November. The defence of the NPL Challenge Cup lasted just one match as they lost to Ramsbottom in a 3-times postponed match in early December.

There was another impressive unbeaten run in the league of 15 wins and a draw from late October until the first week of March, including separate runs of 5 and 6 clean sheets.

On 11 February, the club parted company with manager Shaun Reid by mutual consent. The Club decided not to renew his contract at the end of the season and the board agreed to his request to be released from his contract immediately. Stuart Mellish & Lee Smith took over as the management team until the end of the season.

This did not seem to affect the club’s bid for promotion as Town lost only 2 more league games in the season, winning the other 12 games.

Needing just one point from the last 3 games of the season, Town won 6-1 at home against Prescot Cables in front of over 1400 spectators to seal the Championship title with 2 games remaining.

The final league record was 34 wins, 4 draws and just 4 defeats. Town won Division One North by 15 points setting division records of 106 points and 121 goals scored, beating the records set in the 2012-13 season. Town also scored in every one of the 42 league games.

Striker & Town captain Ciaran Kilheeney was the top scorer in all 3 NPL divisions with 37 league goals (the next highest was 29 goals). (He also scored 4 cup goals during the season.)

Ciaran Kilheeney, centre-back James McCarten and goalkeeper Karl Wills were named in the NPL Division One North team of the season.

2016-17 season

The Club are in the Northern Premier League Premier Division in 2016-17 (level 7 of the National League System). This is the highest level in the club’s history.

The team had an inconsistent start to the season. We exited the FA Cup in the first game. Also, several league games were lost to teams near the bottom of the table while beating Blyth Spartansand Buxton who were in the top 4.

After 16 games (with a record of W8, D1, L7) while 6th in the table & immediately following a home defeat by Workington, on 15-Oct-2016 the club parted company with their management duo of Stuart Mellish and Lee Smith “by mutual consent”. Reserve team coach Steve Hayes & Andy McCann stepped in as caretakers the day before a creditable away draw at Rushall Olympic.

A week later the club appointed Paul Carden straight from his interim position at Tranmere Rovers along with club FA Cup talisman Craig Robinson and Mark Beesley. The new trio’s first game ended in a 2-2 draw away at Stafford Rangers. An horrendous injury list contributed to the team sitting in 15th position going into the New Year. Players returned and new signings were made and the team rallied to fourth place at one point as team went on an amazing run, however that challenge ended strangely enough at home to Stafford and the team tailed off to 10th position but overall looked promising for the following season

2017-18 season

The summer brought many changes in the player roster which included the departure of Craig Robinon to resume his playing career. Carden made some good signings in pre-season and the club started the season well. They improved on their previous campaign and ended up with their highest ever finish of third in the NPL Premier Division qualifying them for the play-offs, where they lost in a home semi-final against Grantham Town.

2018-19 season

They followed this up in 2018-19 with another third placed finish, in a season made more complicated by the expulsion of North Ferriby United who went out of business partway through the campaign. In the play-offs Warrington beat Nantwich Town 4-1 in a home semi-final, and then won 2-1 against South Shields in the final. Normally this would have resulted in promotion to National League North.

However, as a one-off for the 2018-19 season, Town had to play a “super playoff” game against the playoff winners of the newly-formed Southern League Premier Central Division. In this game Warrington lost 3-2 to King’s Lynn Town after extra time, and they remained in the Northern Premier League Premier Division for the 2019–20 season.

2019-20 & 2020-21 season

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019-20 season was formally abandoned in March 2020, with all results from the season being expunged. The following 2020-21 season was also abandoned.

2021-22 season

After two seasons in charge, Paul Carden announced that he would be leaving the club to take up a new role at Telford in the National League North. Mark Beesley subsequently took over the reins of the club and led the Yellows to a fifth-placed finish and a play-off run.

Following a play-off semi-final victory away at South Shields, Warrington Town travelled to face Scarborough Athletic for a place in the National League North. However, they would be denied the chance once again after the hosts edged out the Yellows to a 2-1 victory.

2022-23 season

The Yellows started the 2022-23 season in a mixed fashion, claiming eight points from their first four fixtures before only winning six of their next 13 fixtures. Following a 3-2 victory at home over South Shields, the Yellows would embark on a club-record 22-game unbeaten run which lasted from November 2022 to April 2023.

The Yellows’ excellent mid-to-late season form catapulted them up the league table and they finished the regular season in second place earning them a third consecutive play-off campaign.

After a resounding 4-1 play-off semi-final victory over Matlock Town at Cantilever Park, Warrington Town hosted Bamber Bridge in the Northern Premier League play-off final.

In a closely contested game of very few chances, Warrington Town would finally have their moment of glory as Isaac Buckley-Ricketts’ late goal saw the Yellows achieve promotion into the National League North for the first time in the club’s history, in front of a record crowd at Cantilever Park.