Stalybridge Rovers Football Club was an Englishfootball club from Stalybridge, Cheshire at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century.
Stalybridge Rovers F.C., circa 1895. Arthur Wharton is in the back row.
History
Stalybridge Rovers joined The Combination in 1894, staying for one season, finishing fifth. In 1895 they joined the Lancashire League and played there for eight seasons; they were League champions in 1900–01. They left the League in 1903 to join the Second Division of the Lancashire Combination, winning promotion to the First Division in their inaugural season. However they finished bottom of the division in 1906–07 and left the Combination soon after.
The club made two attempts at entry to the Football League, in 1900 and 1901. The first attempt only gained one vote. The second attempt saw them gaining the same number of votes as rejected League members Walsall, seven, but they lost out to first time applicants Bristol City, who gained election with 23 votes.[2]
Rovers folded in April 1908, when the club became unable to pay its players. Failure to fulfil a fixture at Clitheroe Central led to expulsion from the Lancashire Combination second division.
Colours
The club wore cardinal shirts as a Lancashire League member,[3] but changed to amber jerseys with black shorts[4] in 1903.[5]
Ground
The club played at Crookbottom, off Wakefield Road.[2]
Players
Famous players for Stalybridge Rovers include Herbert Chapman, who later led Huddersfield Town and Arsenal to the First Division title as manager, who played for the club circa 1897; and Arthur Wharton, Britain's first black professional footballer, who played for Stalybridge Rovers from 1896 to 1897, and again from 1899 to 1900. It is not clear if the two ever played together.
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