Glossop North End

Glossop North End AFC is a non-league football club, that was founded in 1886, from the market town of Glossop, which is located in the High Peak district of Derbyshire; around fifteen miles east of Manchester.

The team started out playing friendly amateur matches at a variety of grounds, including Pyegrove, Silk Street, Water Lane and Cemetery Road before settling at North Road. North End became members of The Combination in 1894.

The club joined the Midland League for the 1896-97 season; finishing as runners-up, before progressing to Division Two of the Football League in 1898. A runners-up berth in their first season gave ‘The Hillmen’ promotion to the top flight of English football.

The club changed their name to Glossop FC and becoming the smallest town in England to have had a Football League club, and the smallest town to have played in the English top flight. They were relegated after just one season.

Glossop were bankrolled by Sir Samuel Hill-Wood, who was later to become chairman of Arsenal, with whom the club retains connections to this day. Glossop spent the next fifteen seasons in the Second Division.

In 1908-09 the club reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup, having seeing off Chesterfield, Stockport County and Sheffield Wednesday; before going out to Bristol City in a replay at Ashton Gate. Glossop were not re-elected to the Football League at the end of the 2014-15 campaign.

In peacetime the club was reformed and joined the Lancashire Combination, where they’d stay, with Northern Nomads FC as tenants until 1966. Glossop moved to Surrey Street as their home ground in 1955.

After a spell in the Manchester League, they moved to the Cheshire County League in 1978 and then the newly formed North Counties East League for the 1982-83 season. In 1991, the club nearly folded after the Chairman of the time sold Surrey Street to the local council and left the club with large debts.

Fortunately a new board took over, steadied the ship and reverted to the club’s original name. Following a period of stability, North End embarked on a tremendous FA Vase run in the 2008-09 season.

Sporting Khalsa, Calverton Miners Welfare, New Mills, Biddulph Victoria, Winterton Rangers, Stewarts & Lloyds, Bitton, Marske United and Chalfont St Peter were all defeated as Glossop North End reached Wembley.

In a tremendous gesture, Arsenal remembering the links between the clubs, gave Glossop the use of their state of the art training base at London Colney to prepare for the final against Whitley Bay, as North End went down 0-2 with Steve Young as manager.

To mark the clubs 125th anniversary in 2011, a series of improvements were carried out at Surrey Street, including a section of roof over the Surrey Street side and new changing rooms and hospitality areas.

The 2014-15 season at Surrey Street saw North End crowned as North West Counties League Premier Division champions and win promotion to the Northern Premier League Division One North.

It also saw the team reach the FA Vase final at Wembley once again after defeating West Didsbury & Chorlton, Ryhope Colliery Welfare, 1874 Northwich, Worksop Town, Dunston UTS, Shaw Lane Aquaforce and AFC St Austell.

The final saw the Hillmen go down 1-2 to North Shields under manager Chris Willcock in extra time after Tom Bailey had put them ahead in front of a crowd of 9,674. The team trained at Everton’s Finch Farm and Arsenal’s London Colney base once again.

In their debut 2015-16 Northern Premier League season, North End reached the play-offs, but were defeated in the semi-finals by Northwich Victoria. Willcock resigned in April 2017 to be replaced by joint-managers; Steve Halford and Paul Phillips.

Glossop North End AFC will play in the Northern Premier League Division One North for the 2017-18 season.

My visits

Monday 19th July 2010

My day’s plans on had altered as I went along in common with any of my full day jaunts depending on new transport links being found or time constraints. It meant that Glossop North End was my last call of the day, and I’m so glad it was, but not just for the football.

I arrived by train from the very rural Godley station after visiting Hyde. The scenery on the train ride along the Woodhead Line was beautiful, even though the weather was closing in. The town of Glossop seemed pretty, with many buildings made of stone. I soon found my way along Surrey Street and outside the home of North End.

The ground was a bit of a let down to tell the truth. There was certainly nothing wrong with it. It’s just I thought a club of such history may have had something older and more compact. Surrey Street was like so many grounds I’ve visited country wide.

Maybe I was disappointed after seeing the cricket ground on the train ride into town and thought the football ground would live up to it? Maybe it was because there was no-one around and the clubhouse wasn’t open?

Anyway, I digress. The ground was made up in the usual fashion of having much open flat concrete and grass. Behind one goal were the clubhouse and changing rooms as well as a cover for standing fans. Behind this end, a huge chimney dominated in a yard where the rest of the factory had been resigned to rubble.

At the other end the view of the rolling hills was slightly marred by the illuminated signs of the KFC outlet. A neat seated stand was in just one half on the far side, rather than the usual arrangement of such a structure being on the half way line.

I turned back into town and away from the small industrial estate back to the immaculate railway station. My groundhopping was done for the day and I was considering lubrication of the neck! I had twenty minutes to wait before the next train.

This gave me more than enough time to enjoy a pint in slightly sterile George Hotel before the train set off and went to the neighbouring town of Hadfield. This is the town where much of the filming of the dark comedy The League of Gentlemen was carried out.

After a quick text confirmation, I decided I had to get out. I may never get the opportunity to have look again, but as the signs of the fictional Royston Vasey said, “You’ll Never Leave”.

The weather was rainy, misty and humid which was a perfect backdrop to what I was looking for. I walked down the road from the station, and lo and behold there was the memorial that features on the opening credits of the show.

Even better was the fact that The Palatine pub was opposite. I had twenty minutes so I needed no second invitation. The landlady and a local could not have been friendlier and answered all the questions.

I had been a bit nervous as it must get on their nerves, but on the contrary it had boosted tourism no end. The local said that one or two of the old regulars occasionally lost their rags with coachloads invading their pub on a weekend.

He took a photo for me under the town sign, which unfortunately came out blurred. The pint of Robinson’s was as good as the hospitality. I’m glad I stopped off and hoped my beloved Scarborough Athletic get drawn at Glossop in the FA Vase this season.

The train took me back to Manchester via Glossop where I found a couple of highly recommendable pubs, The City Arms and The Britons Protection before having a couple of nightcaps near my hotel in Sale.

It had been a belter of a day. Long live non league football, friendly locals and wonderful old fashioned pubs!

Glossop North End 2 Scarborough Athletic 1 (Tuesday 31^st October 2017) Northern Premier League Division One North (att: 280)

The final night shift was done and it was time for a long distance away game and a chance to get away from London for a day or so. I was looking forward to heading north and enjoying some plain honest talk and hospitality.

I’d booked to stay in Sheffield and travel up using the train via the cheap Megabus option from St Pancras. My local drinking pal Mick Devereux was also heading to Sheffield to support Wednesday against Millwall; so we arranged to travel together.

Unfortunately I’d taken my eye off the ball and got my train times wrong. I awoke after a much needed nap and realised that I wouldn’t make my train. I was upset to say the least; but bit the bullet and bought another ticket at extreme cost.

The journey up allowed me to have a bit more rest and I arrived at Sheffield in decent nick; ready to arrange my lift with locally based Boro fan Russ Westwood. Once I’d freshened up at the Ibis Hotel my pal picked me up for the journey.

It was a shame that it was dark; just the silhouette of the hills was visible as we travelled along Snakes Pass. It was good to catch up and have a proper chat with a fan whose opinions I respected. It reminded me what good fans Boro were lucky to have.

This was further reinforced as we arrived in very good time; dropping down into Glossop; which looked to have its fair share of pubs. Russ got a parking spot right outside the ground, before we paid our £8 admission; with the programme costing a further £1.50.

We were soon chatting with mates, who also happened to be board members. Boro were that kind of club. We adjourned to the clubhouse to enjoy some decent local hand pulled ale and have a good yarn and a laugh over various semi-important issues.

The locals were also a very friendly bunch; with the clubhouse all decked out for Halloween. I’m not sure they were ready for the arrival of a real horror show. You can click here to see how four regular Seadogs were making their way to matches.

More and more mates arrived. It really was good to catch up, before we headed outside. The travelling numbers seemingly caught out Glossop as the pies went in no time. We congregated behind the goal; next to some vocal local youths, who were looking to wind up the Seadogs.

The game was a tight affair on a real pig of a pitch; with its slope from side to side and many undulations. At least there was plenty of turf on it. Nathan Valentine had more time than he realised when he shot weakly at North End keeper Paul Phillips from the edge of the box.

He then nearly gave Boro the lead when his effort bounded down and hit the post with Phillips floundering. The ball could have gone anywhere, but the goalie’s luck was in. The temperature began to drop as we popped in to the bar for further refreshment.

The Glossop fans were not enamoured with the performance of referee; Paul Tomes, although I thought he was one of the better officials I’d seen in action. They went spare when he gave Boro a free kick after Phillips picked up a back pass; although the visitors wasted the opportunity.

At this stage I thought that just one goal would win the game; and I made Boro slight favourites to snatch it. I hadn’t allowed for a freak goal at the other end to break the deadlock on sixty four minutes.

Glossop were attacking but Boro skipper Dave Merris cleared; unfortunately straight against team mate Dan Stimpson. Keeper Tommy Taylor made a fine save, but the rebound fell to Dale Johnson who scored easily.

Boro were level just three minutes later when the ball fell to Michael Coulson who smashed the ball home to the delight of the large away support. I was on my way to the loos at the far end and let the locals know we’d scored. They did like a moan.

Substitute James Cadman had a decent half chance but he was way off target for the Seadogs. The game looked to be petering out for a draw when Glossop’s Jude Oyibo wasn’t closed down following a corner, to allow him to fire home off the post.

In the closing stages Boro had an appeal for a penalty turned down; probably correctly. Glossop hung on to win and then celebrate as though they’d won the FA Cup. I sort of took that as a huge compliment that Boro are seen as such a huge scalp.

It was one of those games. Both sides could have easily won. I was just a little disappointed that Boro didn’t utilise both wings enough and became a bit easier to defend against; although the sloping pitch needed to be taken into account.

Russ was a hero once again and had me in Kelham Island in Sheffield in just over half an hour. I started off proceedings in The Fat Cat, with a few Wednesday fans happy with their win, but not euphoric over their game.

Mick joined me for a pint and enjoyed the line from the barmaid after I mentioned that someone had sold her a pair of jeans with rips in them. Telling me to “go and draw my pension” was probably a fair enough response!

We headed round the corner to The Kelham Island Tavern; chatting to a smashing local and enjoying the fine Farmers Blonde from the local Bradfield Brewery. I headed off piste at closing time considering whether to find any late night bars.

My bearings weren’t the best, but the hills of the city gave me a good workout before I settled for grabbing some supper from a van at the foot of West Street. I was soon asleep back at the hotel.

We returned the next afternoon after fine pints back in the Kelham Island Tavern, The Bankers Draft and the Sheffield Tap before trying three more on our return to London. It was an interesting ride to Kingsbury with the Spurs fans heading to Wembley for their match with Real Madrid.

I made a note not to get on a packed train full of ‘big club’ fans with Mick Dev after he’d had a few! He wasn’t going to back down. I’m glad he was an old lad, I was a diplomat and there wasn’t room to fart on the train, or it could have been interesting.

It was never dull following the Boro!