Oldham County A.F.C.

Oldham County
Full nameOldham County Association Football Club
NicknamesCounty, the Counts[1]
Founded1895
Dissolved1897
GroundAthletic Ground
SecretariesW. Clarkson (financial), J. Jones (correspondence)
ChairmanJ. Dyson

Oldham County Association Football Club was an association football club from Oldham, Lancashire, active in the 1890s.

History

The club was formed in 1895, to bring the association code to a rugby union town, and it was admitted to The Combination for the 1895–96 season.[2] The new club got off to a promising start, 4,000 spectators turning up to a narrow home defeat to Everton reserves.[3] It finished the season 4th out of 8 clubs.[4]

The season had been however a financial disaster, the club running a loss of £235 after gate receipts added up to £317 but player wages ran to £277.[5] Before the 1896–97 season, a new limited liability company, the Oldham County Football and Athletic Company Limited, was formed, with proposed capital of £4,000, to take over the assets and liabilities of the A.F.C., with the aim of building a new ground, adding tracks for trotting, cycling, and athletics.[6] The club stepped up to the higher standard Lancashire League[7] and enjoyed a mid-table finish.[8] It also had a decent run in the 1896–97 FA Cup qualifying rounds, winning through two ties before going down to Nelson at the third stage.[9]

However the club struggled with finances off-field, the cost of the new ground proving crippling.[10] In October 1896, a toxic dispute broke out players and club. Seven players went on strike claiming they had not been given promised written contract, or part-time jobs to supplement their pay, and they had not received their winning bonuses; the directors denied these allegations,[11] but the club's season was derailed. Later in the year, the wife of a previous club secretary successfully sued the club for the return of £10 which she had lent at the start of the season.[12]

Despite this, the club planned to apply to join the Football League at the end of the 1896–97 season,[13] but the application was hopeless, and the club came crashing down in November 1897. After landscape gardener J. J. Ashton presented a winding-up against the club for his £550 fees for designing the Athletic Ground,[14] it withdrew from the Lancashire League,[15] two directors were made bankrupt at the end of the month,[16] and the club was formally wound up on 9 December.[17] By 1900, most of the club directors, who were mostly working men on minimal wages, had been made bankrupt, as they had guaranteed Ashton's fees.[18][19]

Ground

The club's ground in its first season was at West Hulme.[20] In 1896, after a plan to buy a ground off Chadderton Street had foundered,[21] the club laid out a new ground, the Athletic Ground; after the club's liquidation, it was taken over by Pine Villa F.C., which was in the process of changing its name to Oldham Athletic, and the new club changed the ground's name to Boundary Park.[22]

Notable players

References

  1. ^ "Football notes". Ashton Standard: 10. 14 March 1896.
  2. ^ "Macclesfield". Evening Sentinel: 2. 29 June 1895.
  3. ^ "The Combination". Manchester Courier: 7. 9 September 1895.
  4. ^ "Oldham County". Football Club History Database. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  5. ^ "Oldham County Football Club annual meeting". Ashton Standard: 11. 13 June 1896.
  6. ^ "General sport". Daily Record: 7. 7 July 1896.
  7. ^ "Meeting of the Lancashire Football League". The Guardian: 6. 18 May 1896.
  8. ^ "Oldham County". Football Club History Database. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  9. ^ Krastev, Todor. "Football 26th English Football Association (FA) Cup 1896-1897 Qualification". todor66. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  10. ^ "Football gossip". Manchester Evening News: 3. 6 November 1897.
  11. ^ "County football strike". Supplement to the Standard: 2. 17 October 1896.
  12. ^ "The football industry". The Guardian: 9. 12 March 1897.
  13. ^ "Middleton and Tonge". North Manchester Guardian: 4. 10 April 1897.
  14. ^ "Gleanings". Birmingham Post: 4. 20 October 1898.
  15. ^ "Winding-up of a football club". North Manchester Guardian: 4. 8 November 1897.
  16. ^ "Football club directors bankrupt". Evening Chronicle: 2. 23 November 1897.
  17. ^ "Oldham County Football Club winding-up order". Manchester Courier: 3. 10 December 1897.
  18. ^ "The Oldham County Football Club". Ramsbottom Observer: 5. 7 December 1900.
  19. ^ "A too keen supporter of football". Manchester Evening News: 3. 10 January 1901.
  20. ^ "The Combination". The Guardian: 7. 9 September 1895.
  21. ^ "Oldham County Football Club annual meeting". Ashton Standard: 11. 13 June 1896.
  22. ^ "Boundary Park". pastscape.org.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
  23. ^ "Alderman W. H. Sharpe". Guardian: 3. 1 April 1937.
  24. ^ "Football notes". Manchester Evening News: 4. 4 September 1897.
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