Back In The Lancashire Combination for one game!
Having resigned from the Football League the club tried to complete it's reserve obligations and the players now found themselves playing Lancashire Combination football.
On 3rd November 1932 Borough played Southport Reserves at Haig Avenue in a Lancashire Combination fixture. The first team was played and the club recorded only its second victory of the season courtesy of a 2-1 score line.
The teams that lined up in this historic game were,
Southport: Middleton, Astley, Batty, Wilson, Kirtley, Pickering, Duff (a Scottish junior on trial), Taylor, Rimmer, Patterson, Johnson
Borough: Mittell, Wade, Hartley, Hallam, Martin, Shears, Cherry, Tebb, Cockle, Oakes, Moon.
The goal scorers were Tebb and Cockle (who goes down as the last player to ever score a goal for the club) with Taylor netting alate consolation for the Sandgrounders.
Meanwhile a letter from former director, secretary and caretaker manager Mr Garfield Wallace, who resided in Gidlow Lane, was circulated to the local press in which he claimed that the Football League was looking to re instate the club back into the Third Division. He was calling for a public meeting in 'Committee Room A' at the Town Hall. He had plans that would involve buying Springfield Park and he claimed that the FA were ready to admit them back into the fold of the Third Division North!
There was also a club meeting scheduled two days after the Southport game, the purpose of which was for the directors to decide whether or not the team fulfill their Lancashire Combination fixtures or resign from that League as well. In the event the meeting never happened and the next scheduled game against Accrington Stanley at Springfield Park was never played. Nor was any other association football game.
The fiirst of the players sold by the Football League Management Committee was Jack Martin who accepted terms at Oldham Athletic immediately after the Southport game. The fee was undisclosed but some of the money went towards paying the Borough players.
Much confusion abounded in town because Wigan Borough had been drawn to play Burton Town at Springfield Park. Mr Leslie Aldred, whose duties were now just secretarial, was amazed insisting that the game could not be played as the club was defunct. However, the FA were insisting that the game should be played as scheduled. Indeed club officials at Burton guaranteed Wigan Borough two hundred pounds if they could raise a team to enable the game to be played.
The game was scheduled for 28th November but the club by now, (mid November 1932) only had seven players on their books, these being Julian, Shears, Hallam, Hartley, Stevenson, Cockle and Tebb. He did endeavour to put a team together consisting of these players and some selected amateurs, as money was still owed to some players, but it was never to be.
Burton Town thus became the first club to ever receive a 'bye' in the first round proper of the competition. Even more strange was the fact that in the previous qualifying round Bath City had also received a 'bye' following the removal of Newport County from the competition!
It is quite amazing that the people of Wigan were still clinging onto the possibility of once agains witnessing Wigan Borough play in the Football League. Mr Garfield Wallaces' efforts came to nothing, the club did indeed fold and perhaps it only really dawned on the public of Wigan when Springfield Park was sold. Even then there was a stipulation in the sale that safeguarded a Borough return to the Football League!
The ground was sold to the Wigan Greyhound Racing and Sports Club which also owned a stadium nearby on Woodhouse Lane. Mr ST Meadow the receiver called in to oversee the liquidation of the club insisted that there was a clause permitting the association club to lease the ground should Borough gain re entry into the Football League. Speaking of the actual selling price of Springfield Park he insisted,
"The price paid for the ground is not substantial considering the indebtedness of the debenture holders".
Wigan Borough AFC were history.
On 3rd November 1932 Borough played Southport Reserves at Haig Avenue in a Lancashire Combination fixture. The first team was played and the club recorded only its second victory of the season courtesy of a 2-1 score line.
The teams that lined up in this historic game were,
Southport: Middleton, Astley, Batty, Wilson, Kirtley, Pickering, Duff (a Scottish junior on trial), Taylor, Rimmer, Patterson, Johnson
Borough: Mittell, Wade, Hartley, Hallam, Martin, Shears, Cherry, Tebb, Cockle, Oakes, Moon.
The goal scorers were Tebb and Cockle (who goes down as the last player to ever score a goal for the club) with Taylor netting alate consolation for the Sandgrounders.
Meanwhile a letter from former director, secretary and caretaker manager Mr Garfield Wallace, who resided in Gidlow Lane, was circulated to the local press in which he claimed that the Football League was looking to re instate the club back into the Third Division. He was calling for a public meeting in 'Committee Room A' at the Town Hall. He had plans that would involve buying Springfield Park and he claimed that the FA were ready to admit them back into the fold of the Third Division North!
There was also a club meeting scheduled two days after the Southport game, the purpose of which was for the directors to decide whether or not the team fulfill their Lancashire Combination fixtures or resign from that League as well. In the event the meeting never happened and the next scheduled game against Accrington Stanley at Springfield Park was never played. Nor was any other association football game.
The fiirst of the players sold by the Football League Management Committee was Jack Martin who accepted terms at Oldham Athletic immediately after the Southport game. The fee was undisclosed but some of the money went towards paying the Borough players.
Much confusion abounded in town because Wigan Borough had been drawn to play Burton Town at Springfield Park. Mr Leslie Aldred, whose duties were now just secretarial, was amazed insisting that the game could not be played as the club was defunct. However, the FA were insisting that the game should be played as scheduled. Indeed club officials at Burton guaranteed Wigan Borough two hundred pounds if they could raise a team to enable the game to be played.
The game was scheduled for 28th November but the club by now, (mid November 1932) only had seven players on their books, these being Julian, Shears, Hallam, Hartley, Stevenson, Cockle and Tebb. He did endeavour to put a team together consisting of these players and some selected amateurs, as money was still owed to some players, but it was never to be.
Burton Town thus became the first club to ever receive a 'bye' in the first round proper of the competition. Even more strange was the fact that in the previous qualifying round Bath City had also received a 'bye' following the removal of Newport County from the competition!
It is quite amazing that the people of Wigan were still clinging onto the possibility of once agains witnessing Wigan Borough play in the Football League. Mr Garfield Wallaces' efforts came to nothing, the club did indeed fold and perhaps it only really dawned on the public of Wigan when Springfield Park was sold. Even then there was a stipulation in the sale that safeguarded a Borough return to the Football League!
The ground was sold to the Wigan Greyhound Racing and Sports Club which also owned a stadium nearby on Woodhouse Lane. Mr ST Meadow the receiver called in to oversee the liquidation of the club insisted that there was a clause permitting the association club to lease the ground should Borough gain re entry into the Football League. Speaking of the actual selling price of Springfield Park he insisted,
"The price paid for the ground is not substantial considering the indebtedness of the debenture holders".
Wigan Borough AFC were history.
Just two months after Wigan Borough’s demise a band of men met in the Pagefield Hotel on Park Road and discussed the possibility of forming another town association football team. After lengthy discussions it was decided to call a public meeting in the town early in the New Year of 1932. For a number of unknown reasons the expected meeting only took place on 9th May 1932 at a packed Queens Hall and the Mayor of Wigan, Councillor W.A. Hipwood chaired the meeting. The outcome of the meeting was that a ‘steering committee’ of several prominent gentlemen of Wigan was formed, on the spot, in order to bring Association Football back to the town and it’s people...
Copyright © 2012 - This Northern Soul. All rights reserved
Copyright © 2012 - This Northern Soul. All rights reserved