Next goal a big milestone for Warrington Town

The next goal scored by Warrington Town will be the 7,000th in the club’s history.

Dating back to the very first game on 27th August 1949 and the first goal scored by Harold Preston, there have now been 6,999 goals scored in competitive matches following the 3-0 win over Hyde United on Tuesday night.

The figure includes all goals scored in league and cup matches over the years, covering a total of 3,637 games.

We know the scorer of all but two of those 6,999 goals, though they have no real impact on milestone or player totals.

The most decorated scorer in the club’s history is Steven Hughes, who bagged 193 goals between 1981 and 1991.

Les Arnold and one-time New Zealand international Eric Griffin are next in line with 163 and 161 respectively, having been the most prolific scorers in the early years of the club. Alan Foster also registered 150 goals between 1953 and 1960, with Harry Bennett scoring 131 between 1955 and 1964.

Next in the goalscorers list is Dave Hardy, who scored 128 between 1962 and 1979, with Dave Gleave on 110 goals between 1970 and 1980.

In more recent times, the only other player to notch a century of goals for the club is Gavin McDonald, who managed 103 between 1991 and 2000.

Of the current squad, Josh Amis has scored 94 goals in 222 appearances, which puts him 21st on the all-time list. Through the research done over recent years, we have also been able to identify the scorers of previous milestone goals in the club’s history.

The club’s 1,000th goal was scored by none other than England World Cup winning striker, the late Roger Hunt in 1956.

He scored a total of 91 goals for the club, then known as Stockton Heath Albion, before earning a move to Liverpool. His 91 goals has him joint 10th in the club’s all-time goalscorer list, alongside Chris Gahgan.

It took nine years for the next thousand goals to be scored, with Dennis Winter claiming the 2,000th with the final goal in an 8-3 win over Mossley Athletic.

The 3,000th goal was scored by Alan Monteith, whose son Stuart is now manager of the Warrington Town Women’s team.

Monteith sits ninth in the club’s all-time top goalscorer listing with 99 goals.

The first of Jimmy Williams’ brace against Bootle in a league match in 1990 brought up 4,000.

Two milestones have previously been hit this century - with Robbie Priedt scoring the 5,000th goal in a FA Vase win over Bottesford Town in September 2001. The 6,000th goal was scored by Ash Ruane in May 2013 in a 5-2 win away at Garforth Town.

Who will get the 7,000th?

The club hopes to invite the milestone goalscorers or their families to an upcoming game to present a memento and mark the milestone achievement.

Any relevant individuals should get in touch first by emailing: james@warringtontownfc.co.uk

Research continues to try and complete as many line-ups as possible from the club’s history to provide as accurate as possible appearance data for all players.

We have full line-up data for more than 2,000 matches, including every game since 1998, but there are still gaps in around 1,500. If you think you can help, whether that be with information, old team sheets or programmes, see here: https://stats.warringtontownfc.co.uk/help.php