Heswall
Full nameHeswall Football Club
Nickname(s)The Yellow Bus
Founded1891
GroundGayton Park
ChairmanRobbie Matthews
ManagerBen Scoffield
LeagueWest Cheshire League
2022–23West Cheshire League Division One, 14th of 15

Heswall Football Club is an association football club based in Heswall, Merseyside, England. They are currently members of the West Cheshire League Division One. The club is a FA Charter Standard Club affiliated to the Cheshire Football Association.[1]

History

The club was founded in 1891. In the early years the club played in Division two of the West Cheshire Association Football League from the 1894–95 season until the end of the 1910–11 season, winning the division once in the 1906–07 campaign, but not gaining promotion to Division One.[2]

In 1958 the club rejoined Division Two of the West Cheshire League, finishing as runners-up at their first attempt.[3] The club remained in Division Two until the end of the 1968–69 season, when they earned promotion to Division One as champions. The club remained in Division one until the end of the 1981–82 season, when they left the league.[3] Just a few seasons before this the club made its debut in the FA Vase in the 1978–79 season, but getting knocked out immediately by Linotype F.C. in the preliminary qualify round.[3] They did better the following season, making it to the 3rd round, a feat they would repeat a further two times.[3]

The 1988–89 season saw the club return to Division one of the West Cheshire League, and the 2004–05 season saw the club become champions of the league.[3] The club repeated this feat in the 2012–13 season, but they were relegated the following season.[3] They bounced back up as runners-up of Division two at their first attempt, to return to Division one.[4] The club stayed in Division one for three seasons, being relegated back to Division Two, when they had a 15 point deduction for failing to play 5 games.[3][5]

In 2020, Heswall FC merged clubs with new club Pensby FC under the Heswall FC name.

In an interrupted 2020 - 2021 season, Heswall finished in 2nd Place in Division 2 to make a well deserved return to the top flight, a fantastic achievement from the squad and the management team of Andy Cass, Ben Scoffield & Jake Cripps.

The first season back in the top division saw Heswall perform superbly, finishing in 5th place. Sadly, at the end f the season, Manager Andy Cass chose to step down to take up a post at Vauxhall Motors taking his players & coaches with him. Heswall brought in Neil Young & Paul Mort to rebuild the first team but sadly things didn't go to plan and they stepped down in November with coach Neil Sharpe stepping up to be First Team Manager with Aaron Baird as his assistant.

The 2023 - 2024 Season has seen an air of familiarity at Gayton Park as former 1st Team Assistant & Resere Team Manager Ben Scoffield returns to the club as First Team Manager alongside Coaches Joe Collister who having hung up the gloves after an illustrious career ventures into coaching for the first time and another new to coaching in Mike "The Mulldog" Mullin.

Heswall FC also rebranded the Reserve Team to have a renewed focus on Younger Players as Heswall U23 retain a place in West Cheshire League Division 3 under a management team of Lee Hawkins, Josh Hart & Neil Young.

With the glance toward Youth & Junir football, Heswall also welcomed reigining Champions Ashville Warriors into the club as Heswall U16 under West Cheshire stalwart and former winner Jimmy Cross and assistant Liam Corcoran. Joining the from Ashville were the U10 Ninjas under Liam Corcoran & Phil Wright. AAn exciting new dawn for Heswall FC.

Ground

Since 1971 the club has played its home games at Gayton Park. In 2020, a number of renovations have taken place at the ground. [6]

Honours

  • West Cheshire Association Football League[3][2]
    • Division One Champions (7) 1935 - 1936, 1936 - 1937, 1937 - 1938, 1984 - 1985, 1987 - 1988, 2004 - 2005, 2012 - 2013
    • Division Two Champions (6) 1906 - 1907, 1968 - 1969, 1989 - 1990, 1990 - 1991, 1996 - 1997, 1998 - 1999
  • Cheshire Football Association Amateur Cup[7][8]
    • Winners (2) 1991–92 & 2011–1
  • Wirral District FA Senior Cup
    • Winners (7) 1938 - 1939, 1984 - 1985, 1991 - 1992, 1995 - 1996, 1996 - 1997, 1997 - 1998, 1998 - 1999
  • Wirral District FA Amateur Cup
    • Winners (10) 1931 - 1932, 1932 - 1933, 1933 - 1934, 1935 - 1936, 1936 - 1937, 1976 - 1977, 1986 - 1987, 1995 - 1996, 1998 - 1999, 2003 - 2004
  • Wirral District FA Junior Cup
    • Winner (1) 1919 - 1920
  • Pyke Cup
    • Winner (4) 1932 - 1933, 1938 - 1939, 1984 - 1985, 1996 - 1997
  • Bill Weight Trophy
    • Winner (1) 1991 - 1992
  • West Cheshire League Bowl Sponsored by Haworth & Gallagher
    • Winner (3) 1989 - 1990, 1998 - 1999, 2020 - 2021
  • West Cheshire League Development Trophy
    • Winner (1) 2015 - 2016

Notable players

Alan Reeves played for Heswall during the 1987–88 season and later went on to make over 400 appearances for Football League clubs including Wimbledon F.C. and Swindon Town. Reeves' brother Dave Reeves, also spent a season with Heswall before beginning his career with Sheffield Wednesday. Graham Branch had a stellar career with Tranmere Rovers & Burnley.

References

  1. ↑ Heswall : Details: Heswall : Details, accessdate: February 22, 2020
  2. 1 2 West Cheshire League 1892–1915: West Cheshire League 1892–1915, accessdate: February 22, 2020
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Heswall at the Football Club History Database
  4. ↑ Wirral Globe: Carlsberg West Cheshire League: South Liverpool take the crown | Wirral Globe, accessdate: February 23, 2020
  5. ↑ Heswall First: Heswall First, accessdate: February 23, 2020
  6. ↑ TT910107: TT910107, accessdate: February 23, 2020
  7. ↑ Cheshire FA: Results – Cheshire FA, accessdate: February 23, 2020
  8. ↑ Cheshire County Cups: Football Club History Database – Cheshire County Cups, accessdate: February 23, 2020
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