PENNINGTON FOOTBALL CLUB SUMMARY

Pennington FC was founded as an U13s team in 1970 by a local doctor “Doc Lee” who wanted somewhere for his son to enjoy playing football. The team in those days played at Wesley Guild playing fields opposite Pennington Park in Leigh and entered the Warrington & District Youth FL.

After many successful seasons in the Youth ranks, in the Jubilee year of 1977 the team stepped up to the senior leagues and acquired some land at the disused “coal ruck” at Leigh Road, Atherleigh and aptly named it Jubilee Park. After a lot of hard work, converting the coal ruck into something like a football pitch, an opportunity was seen at Crewe Hospital, where a vacant portable building became available. Doc quickly assembled a team of volunteers, who with several to trucks and flat beds managed to tow the portable building up the M6 to Atherleigh where it was converted into dressing rooms and a club house at the Jubilee Park site.

The team morphed into a club when they introduced a Reserve Team in 1980 and entered both sides in the Manchester Football League. The club spent many happy years in the Manchester FL and organised several overseas tours and home international tournaments at their Jubilee Park home. Doc Lee retired during this time and handed over control of the club to a newly formed committee. But disaster struck, one night in October 1996, when a TV had an electrical fault and the sparks caught light to the club house which was burnt to the ground. All that remained was the remnants of the dressing rooms, after a quick patch up and through the smell of charred remains the teams managed to complete the season.

The following years saw many up and downs for the club, with some honours win on the pitch in the Manchester League and the Goldline Trophy in 1999. But the following years saw a major decline and the club struggled through some very tough times. An excursion into the West Lancs FL was tried in the early 00’s to see if the club re-establish some of its former glory, but unfortunately it didn’t work out and the club returned to the Manchester League in 2004.

In 2006 the club decided to introduce a junior section, where they added one team in the North Bury U12s League. This, then was followed by other new junior teams to the club in the following seasons until 2008 when the club acquired additional land adjacent to the main site at Jubilee Park, which expanded its capacity to accommodate more teams into its new junior section set up.

The major breakthrough was in 2013, when the club was awarded £130k in grants from Virridor Waste Management and The Football Foundation which funded the building of the new dressing and Club House at Jubilee Park which opened in 2014. The club have never looked back since and a 24 team set-up now operates on the Jubilee Park site, comprising of seniors, youth & junior boys and girls under the banner of PENNINGTON FOOTBALL CLUB.   

 

Recent History

Part way through the 2017-18 season an opportunity presented itself to the club and a new 1st Team Management Team of James Macmullen  & John Brannigan was brought into the club to add some much needed stability to the senior mens set-up. James had previous history at the club having played for the 1st Team in his teenage years and quickly fitted well into the dynamics of the club atmosphere. The 1st Team narrowly missed promotion in that run in to the 17/18 season end but managed to get to the final of the Bolton Hospital Cup which they narrowly lost in the dying seconds of the game.

The 2018-19 saw the 1st Team come Runners-up in the Manchester Div 1 and win promotion back to Premier Division. Unfortunately the following two season were hampered by the COVID Pandemic hit which saw a curtailment of league competitions in 2019-20 & 2020-21. 

 

Since the 2021-22 restart season the club has stabilised its presence in the Premier Division and the Top Reserve Division of the Manchester Football League and hopes to continue its growth with now over 20 teams playing in various age groups from 4-6 year old through to senior adult, which includes 3 all girls teams.