Flixton

Flixton FC are a non league club from the western outskirts of Manchester. “The Lions” were formed in 1960 and started out life in local league football.

The club moved into the Manchester League in 1972, where they finished runners up on three occasions before joining the North West Counties League in 1986. The 1995-96 season was the clubs most successful to date as they won promotion into the Northern Premier League and reached the semi-final of the FA Vase before going down to Brigg Town.

Successive relegations came in 2000 and 2001 before a further promotion was achieved. At the end of the 2011-12 season Flixton resigned from the North West Counties League to play local league football. However, Northwich Villa signed a deal to use Valley Road and Northwich Victoria's Chairman Jim Rushe appealed to the FA to allow them to use the ground instead of their original agreed share at Marston Road, Stafford.

My visit

Tuesday 20th July 2010

I was in the Greater Manchester region for three days groundhopping and enjoying the sights and I was nearing the end of day two. I arrived at Flixton station in damp weather off the train from Irlam.


Now I’m quite a hardy chap when it comes to fulfilling my plans (stubborn and plain daft are other descriptions that have been used before now), but the weather really was testing me by now. I carried on walking under trees to try and get protection. My A to Z was taking a battering as were my clothes. My cagoule was not giving me the protection I’d hoped for.


In the end I got into a bus shelter and watched as the rain bounced off the pavements and a storm passed overhead. I looked at the bus timetables but there was nothing going nowhere near my hotel. I was basically stuck. My intention was to go to the friendly about an hour later at nearby Trafford. I really didn’t give out much hope of that game going ahead.


Eventually the rain died down to a small sprinkle, or at least compared to what had fallen and the skies seemed brighter. That was all I needed to continue. I’m so glad I did as the Valley Road ground was only a couple of minutes walk away.

The ground was locked at the near side but I was able to peer over the lowish perimeter wall. Like many venues of this level it consisted of much open flat grass and concrete with two stands facing each other, one with seats and one for standing spectators. A large two tiered brick building not unlike the one at Abbey Hey stood on the far side, containing the changing and administrative facilities as well as a large clubhouse. An unusual feature of the ground was that the ground had four floodlight pylons. Nothing strange there until I realised where they were positioned. There was two behind each goal.

I went off avoiding puddles in a soggy mess in search of Shawe View through the nice residential streets in the hope that the Trafford FC pitch drained well.