Statistics

Match Summary
Biggest Home Win	3-2	05/08/23 v Route One Rovers (First Division North)
Biggest Away Win		No away victories at present
Biggest Home Defeat	1-4	02/09/23 v AFC Blackpool (First Division North)
Biggest Away Defeat	2-6	28/08/23 v Garstang (First Division North)
Highest Drawn Game	1-1	29/07/23 v Daisy Hill (H) (First Division North)
		19/08/23 v Ilkley Town (H) (First Division North)
Highest Aggregate Scoreline	8	28/08/23 2-6 v Garstang (A) (First Division North)

 

Season at a Glance
	Home		Away		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%
Played	6		8		14
Won	3	50.00%	0	0.00%	3	21.43%
Drawn	2	33.33%	1	12.50%	3	21.43%
Lost	1	16.67%	7	87.50%	8	57.14%
Scored	10	1.67	5	0.63	15	1.07
Conceded	10	1.67	17	2.13	27	1.93

 

Progression in Cup Competitions
The Isuzu FA Vase	2nd Qualifying Round	0-2	Pilkington	(A)
The Macron Cup	1st Round	v	Atherton LR	(A)
	To be played on Tue 17/10/23
The Edward Case Cup	1st Round	v	South Liverpool	(H)
	To be played on Tue 10/10/23

 

Home Attendance Summary
Highest Attendance	125	29/07/23 v Daisy Hill (First Division North)
Lowest Attendance	66	19/08/23 v Ilkley Town (First Division North)
Average Attendance	6 games	88

 

Number of Games Since
Last Win	6 games
Last Defeat	0 games
Goalless Draw	8 games
Score Draw	7 games
Scored A Goal	1 game
Fail To Score	0 games
Clean Sheet	8 games

 

Scored / Conceded This Season
	Scored		Conceded
	#	%	#	%
None	4	28.57%	1	7.14%
One	6	42.86%	6	42.86%
Two	3	21.43%	4	28.57%
Three	1	7.14%	1	7.14%
Four	0	0.00%	1	7.14%
Five or more	0	0.00%	1	7.14%

 

When the Goals Went In
	For		Against		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%
0-15	1	6.67%	2	0%	3	7.14%
16-30	2	13.33%	1	0%	3	7.14%
31-45	1	6.67%	8	0%	9	21.43%
46-60	4	26.67%	2	0%	6	14.29%
61-75	4	26.67%	2	0%	6	14.29%
76-90	3	20.00%	12	0%	15	35.71%
90-105	0	0.00%	0	0%	0	0.00%
105-120	0	0.00%	0	0%	0	0.00%

 

History

Ashton Athletic Football Club was founded in 1968, playing in the Wigan Sunday League – winning every Division in consecutive seasons and many cup competitions before switching to the Warrington League on Saturdays where similar success was sustained.

The Club developed Brocstedes Park and was admitted to the Lancashire Combination, before becoming a founder member of the North West Counties League when the Combination merged with the Cheshire league in 1982. Unfortunately, financial constraints prevented the required ground improvements to be completed, and the Club was relegated into the Manchester league Division One in 1986. The drop of two leagues resulted in the majority of the playing staff moving to other clubs and for numerous years the club endeavoured to re-build. Players came and went, lacking the Club loyalty that had brought success to the Club in the 1970's and early 80's until the Committee embraced an ambitious youth development policy in 1999.

The Yellows then embarked on a ten-year development plan to enhance its recreational facilities and expand the Club, in particular its junior section. The Club members worked tirelessly to progress the Club within its means, and with some help from external grant sources. Assistance from the Football foundation, Awards for All programme, and Wigan Council enabled a series of improvements to be completed. The main pitch was re-drained, a second pitch acquired/improved, new changing rooms and Clubhouse built, disabled access provided and other improvements made to the grounds. The ground was brought up to the necessary Ground Grading for the NWCFL and further improvements provided additional seating.

The 2008/09 season also saw further progression for the Yellows, having been promoted to the Premier Division of the North West Counties League. The FA Cup proved very lucrative for the Club, progressing through 3 stages and beating 2 teams from higher leagues in the process. The previous season also saw cup success for the Yellows, retaining the Atherton Charity Cup at the end of the season. Following an impressive 6th place finish in the 2008/09 season, the Yellows struggled in the league for the next 4 seasons, finishing in the bottom three of the league in three of the next four seasons. 21st (09/10), 22nd (10/11), 14th (11/12) and 20th (12/13).

In 2013, the Yellows took the unusual step in bringing in a trio of joint managers -Jay Foulds, Ben Kay and Dougie Pitts. Jay and Ben were brought in from Wigan Robin Park and Dougie came in following a break from the game. The trio needed to completely rebuild the squad for the 2013/14 season and made an excellent start to their managerial careers creating club history with a 6th place finish and beating Maine Road 1-0 to win the League Challenge Cup at Curzon Ashton. More club history was made in the 2014/15 season with a highest ever 5th place finish in the league, conceding only 38 goals and losing only 7 league games that season and the Yellows were successful in the Wigan Cup, beating Newburgh Harrock United 5-1 in the final at Brocstedes Park. The 2015/16 season brought a solid 7th place finish in the league.

The 2016/17 saw another top 10 finish with the club ending the season in 9th place, but the Yellows made history in the cups reaching the 2nd qualifying round for the first time ever, losing 5-0 against Halifax Town and winning the Lancashire Cup for the first time, coming from a goal down to win 2-1 against Radcliffe Borough. Lee Vaughan scoring the winner in the final minute of the game. With the impact the management trio made at the club in the 4 seasons that they were in charge , the success was noticed from clubs at a higher level and following the 2016/17 season, Ben Kay left his role as joint manager to take up the role as assistant manager to Simon Howarth at Clitheroe FC.

The following seasons saw further progression with finishes of 12th (17/18), 5th (18/19), and 5th and 14th in the covid curtailed campaigns of 19/20 and 20/21. The club enjoyed further cup success - the 2017/18 season saw Ashton Athletic see off Squires Gate, Runcorn Linnets, Bamber Bridge and Albion Sports in the FA Cup to set up a mouth watering 3rd qualifying round local derby with Chorley with the yellows suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat in front of live BBC cameras and the biggest home crowd in their history of 610. In the 2019/2020 season, wins over AFC Liverpool, Skelmersdale and Morpeth set up an away trip to York City with the yellows beaten 5-0 by their illustrious opponents in front of over 1,000 spectators at Bootham Crescent.
In November 2021, Dougie Pitts stepped down from his position of joint manager due to family and work commitments with. Shortly afterwards, Jay Foulds was joined at the club by Richard Brodie with the pair operating as joint managers of the yellows.

A new vision for the Club is under discussion to further develop the Club and these will include plans for improvements to the access road, new junior changing rooms, additional playing fields for the junior section and a proposed girls/ladies section. The main ground is also scheduled for enhancement works with additional covered spectator areas. The Club is a voluntary organisation run by a Committee of 14 alongside approximately 25 coaches and managers. Any money raised by the Club has been ploughed back into improving the facilities and developing the youth section.

The Club now has a total membership of more than 400. We have 9 junior teams consisting of approximately 160 children who take advantage of the improvement of our now excellent facilities, whilst hundreds of children and adults from opposition teams also benefit from the continually improving facilities. The Club is keen to maintain the pace of development of the club and future plans will enable increased activity at the Club, additional Junior teams and a much safer and secure environment in particular for spectators and Children.

The Club was awarded the FA Charter Standard in 2013.