Atherton Laburnum Rovers

Atherton Laburnum Rovers FC were formed in 1956 as Laburnum Rovers, after the playing fields where they played. They come from the former colliery town of Atherton, which is nine miles north west of Manchester.

In 1965, while playing local league football, they moved to their current home, Crilly Park (which was a farmer’s field) from Hagfold Playing Fields. Facilities were gradually improved to allow “The Panthers” to join the Cheshire County League in 1980. A stipulation of entry was that the club must carry the town’s name, so they took on their present name.

The club became founder members of the North West Counties League in 1982 and further ground improvements allowed them to play in the first division in 1987. They went on to lift the league title in 1992 and 1993 as well as reaching the FA Vase semi final. A record crowd of 1,856 came to Crilly Park (which is named after a former club chairman, Jack Crilly) to see Aldershot Town defeated in the quarter final.

Promotion into the Northern Premier League was attained but their stay lasted just three years. Financial instability struck before the club sorted things out. In their final few months Leigh RMI became tenants at Crilly Park. The side finished bottom of the table at the end of the 2011-12 season and were relegated to Division One.

Atherton Laburnum Rovers will be playing in the North West Counties League Division One in the 2011-12 season.

My visit

Wednesday 21st July 2010

I was on the third and final day of my groundhop of Greater Manchester. Fortunately my clothes had dried out from the previous evenings soaking and I was soon in the city centre from my Sale hotel and travelling on the train from the outdated Victoria station out towards Wigan.

Ideally I would have headed to Daisy Hill FC, which was the next station up the line, but the timetable didn’t allow me the leeway if I was to complete my plans for the day. The station had signposts directing me to Crilly Park and within five minutes I was outside the gates. Unfortunately they were locked. I took some photos but couldn’t get a view of the impressive Main Stand.

However I also went on to visit the town’s other club Atherton Collieries and had time on my hands before my return train, so I went back to Rovers’ on a hunch that someone may have arrived to do the day to day tasks that many fans do not see, but willing volunteers carry out to ensure the club continues.

I was bang on the money. The gates were open and a lady was leaving in a car so I went in. Within a minute she was back, obviously concerned at seeing a stranger entering the ground. I explained what I was doing and she was more than happy to let me continue.

Crilly Park was a decent ground, but it wasn’t the smartest. The Main Stand was a good structure with a raised deck of seats. The changing rooms were underneath. The clubhouse was further up the touchline along with other facilities. There was a disused cover at a very strange angle at the Railway End quite a way back from the pitch. The pitch sloped down to that end. A cover on the far side provided a facility for standing spectators. The rest of the ground consisted of a little terracing as well as flat concrete and grass.

With my task complete I headed back to the station where I waited back into Manchester, ready to connect with buses and another ground.