2014–15 North West Counties Football League

North West Counties
Football League
Division One
Season	2014–15
Champions	Atherton Collieries
Promoted	Atherton Collieries,; Cammell Laird; A.F.C. Darwen
	← 2013–14 2015–16 →

North West Counties
Football League
Premier Division
Season	2014–15
Champions	Glossop North End
Promoted	Glossop North End
Relegated	Bacup & Rossendale Borough; St Helens Town
	← 2013–14 2015–16 →

The 2014–15 North West Counties Football League season was the 33rd in the history of the North West Counties Football League, a football competition in England. Teams were divided into two divisions; Premier Division and Division One.

Premier Division

The Premier Division featured two new teams:^[1]^[2]^[3]

Nelson promoted as champions of Division One
1874 Northwich promoted after finishing third in Division One

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Glossop North End (C, P)	40	33	3	4	100	23	+77	102	Promotion to NPL Division One North
2	Runcorn Linnets	40	28	8	4	89	39	+50	92
3	1874 Northwich	40	26	8	6	90	35	+55	86
4	Colne	40	25	5	10	86	47	+39	80
5	Ashton Athletic	40	21	12	7	69	38	+31	75
6	Squires Gate	40	17	16	7	62	42	+20	67
7	Bootle	40	19	6	15	76	63	+13	63
8	Congleton Town	40	17	9	14	68	57	+11	60
9	A.F.C. Liverpool	40	17	8	15	74	56	+18	59
10	Silsden	40	16	8	16	55	62	−7	56
11	Nelson	40	16	7	17	69	64	+5	55
12	Winsford United	40	15	10	15	66	62	+4	55
13	Runcorn Town	40	13	8	19	72	75	−3	47
14	Abbey Hey	40	14	5	21	56	74	−18	47
15	Maine Road	40	12	9	19	52	75	−23	45
16	West Didsbury & Chorlton	40	13	4	23	57	84	−27	43
17	Alsager Town	40	12	6	22	64	87	−23	42
18	A.F.C. Blackpool	40	7	9	24	37	81	−44	30
19	Barnoldswick Town	40	7	6	27	45	98	−53	27
20	St Helens Town (R)	40	7	5	28	46	115	−69	26	Relegation to Division One
21	Bacup & Rossendale Borough (R)	40	6	6	28	42	98	−56	24	Relegation to Division One
22	Stockport Sports	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0^[a]	Club expelled, record expunged

Updated to match(es) played on 25 April 2015. Source: NWCFL League Tables Archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ The North West Counties Football League confirmed that Stockport Sports had been expelled on 2 March 2015 and as a result their playing record (PL:27, W:3, D:5, L:19, GF:34, GA 98) was expunged.^[4]

Promotion criteria

To be promoted at the end of the season a team must:

Have applied to be considered for promotion by 30 November 2014
Pass a ground grading examination by 31 March 2015
Finish the season in a position higher than that of any other team also achieving criteria 1 and 2
Finish the season in one of the top three positions

The following five clubs achieved criterion 1:^[5]

Results

Games involving Stockport Sports are not included in the overall league tables.

Home \ Away	18N	ABH	BLK	LVP	ALS	ASH	BAC	BWT	BTL	CLN	CNG	GNE	MNR	NEL	RNL	RNT	SIL	SQG	STH	STS	WDC	WNS
1874 Northwich		3–0	2–3	0–1	1–0	0–0	6–2	3–1	1–0	1–4	2–0	1–0	4–2	0–0	0–0	3–0	6–1	1–1	5–0		4–2	0–1
Abbey Hey	0–4		2–2	4–2	2–4	0–0	3–0	2–1	1–4	1–3	2–4	2–3	0–1	3–0	0–5	0–2	1–2	1–2	3–1	2–3	1–4	2–1
A.F.C. Blackpool	0–3	1–2		2–2	1–4	1–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	1–2	2–1	1–5	1–2	0–2	1–3	0–4	0–2	0–0	2–1	2–2	1–3	2–2
A.F.C. Liverpool	2–2	3–1	4–1		3–4	1–1	3–0	3–1	0–1	1–5	1–1	0–1	4–2	4–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	7–3		3–1	1–2
Alsager Town	1–1	0–3	2–0	0–1		1–1	1–0	1–2	2–3	1–1	0–3	0–4	6–0	2–1	3–4	2–5	3–4	0–2	4–2	2–0	2–0	1–1
Ashton Athletic	1–1	1–0	5–0	0–1	2–1		2–0	2–0	2–1	3–2	1–1	1–2	3–1	0–2	0–1	0–0	2–2	4–0	4–3	0–0	2–0	2–1
Bacup & Rossendale Borough	0–4	0–2	2–0	1–0	2–3	1–2		0–3	4–2	0–3	2–2	0–6	1–1	1–2	0–3	4–3	1–2	3–4	2–6	1–3	1–3	3–2
Barnoldswick Town	1–4	1–2	3–2	1–1	2–1	1–6	0–0		1–2	1–4	1–3	0–2	1–1	1–0	1–5	1–6	0–4	1–3	4–1	5–0	2–4	1–1
Bootle	2–2	4–2	3–1	1–2	3–0	2–2	5–0	2–3		2–4	2–1	0–5	1–4	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–1	3–0	3–0	1–2	3–1
Colne	0–1	1–0	4–0	2–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	4–2	0–4		1–3	0–6	3–1	2–0	0–3	5–1	3–0	3–0	4–0	3–0	5–0	1–0
Congleton Town	1–2	1–1	0–4	2–0	0–2	1–1	4–2	3–1	2–1	1–3		1–3	6–2	2–1	1–2	1–0	4–2	0–0	2–0		2–1	0–1
Glossop North End	0–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	4–0	3–0	3–1	2–0	4–2	2–1	0–0		2–0	3–0	0–2	1–3	1–1	3–2	4–0	6–0	6–0	4–0
Maine Road	1–0	0–4	0–1	2–3	1–0	0–1	3–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	0–3		4–1	1–3	2–2	4–1	2–3	1–2	2–2	1–0	2–2
Nelson	1–4	0–3	2–0	2–1	3–0	3–2	2–0	5–0	2–3	1–3	1–0	1–2	0–0		2–1	1–1	2–3	3–3	4–0		2–2	4–2
Runcorn Linnets	3–2	2–2	3–2	2–0	4–1	0–3	3–2	6–2	2–1	1–1	4–3	0–1	1–1	2–1		2–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	3–2	6–0	2–0
Runcorn Town	2–3	0–1	1–1	2–1	3–2	1–3	1–4	1–0	1–2	1–3	3–0	0–0	0–1	2–2	1–1		3–1	2–7	7–2		1–2	3–4
Silsden	0–2	4–1	2–0	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–3	0–1	2–0	0–4	2–3	2–1		0–0	2–1		6–1	0–0
Squires Gate	0–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	7–2	1–2	2–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	3–1	3–0	1–1	2–0	2–0		1–1	3–2	2–0	2–2
St Helens Town	1–4	1–0	3–0	0–9	0–4	0–2	2–0	4–3	1–2	2–5	1–3	1–3	2–0	1–6	0–1	2–2	1–1	0–0		2–4	0–3	1–1
Stockport Sports	0–5	0–4									5–5	0–8	1–3	1–5	2–8	1–6	1–3		0–2		1–2	1–4
West Didsbury & Chorlton	0–2	0–1	0–0	2–3	4–0	0–2	2–1	3–2	1–4	0–1	1–3	0–1	2–2	2–5	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	3–0	6–0		3–0
Winsford United	1–3	5–0	0–1	2–2	4–1	1–2	0–0	2–0	1–3	2–0	3–2	1–4	6–2	1–0	0–2	4–2	2–0	0–0	3–0	3–3	4–1

Updated to match(es) played on 25 April 2015. Source: NWCFL results archive
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Stadia and Locations

Locations of the 2014–15 North West Counties Football League Premier Division teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity
A.F.C. Liverpool	Arriva Stadium, Crosby (groundshare with Marine)	3,185
1874 Northwich	Barton Stadium (groundshare with Winsford United)	3,000
Bacup & Rossendale Borough	West View	3,000
Winsford United	Barton Stadium	3,000
Bootle	Delta Taxis Stadium	2,500
Stockport Sports	The Neil Rourke Memorial Stadium	2,384
Glossop North End	The Arthur Goldthorpe Stadium	2,374
Silsden	The Asda Foundation Stadium	2,300
Maine Road	Brantingham Road, Chorlton	2,000
Nelson	Little Wembley	2,000
Colne	XLCR Vehicle Management Stadium	1,800
Runcorn Linnets	Millbank Linnets Stadium	1,600
Runcorn Town	Pavilions Sports Complex	1,530
A.F.C. Blackpool	The Mechanics	1,500
Alsager Town	Wood Park Stadium	1,500
Congleton Town	Booth Street	1,450
Abbey Hey	The Abbey Stadium, Gorton	1,000
Ashton Athletic	Brockstedes Park	1,000
Squires Gate	School Road	1,000
St Helens Town	Brockstedes Park (groundshare with Ashton Athletic)	1,000
Barnoldswick Town	Silentnight Stadium
West Didsbury & Chorlton	Brookburn Road, Chorlton

Division One

Division One featured four new teams:^[1]^[6]

Barnton promoted from Cheshire Association Football League Division One
Litherland REMYCA promoted from Liverpool County Premier League Premier Division
Wigan Robin Park relegated from the Premier Division.
Cammell Laird 1907 resigned from Northern Premier League Division One North

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Atherton Collieries (C, P)	36	31	3	2	129	26	+103	96	Promotion to Premier Division
2	Cammell Laird 1907 (P)	36	28	5	3	114	35	+79	89	Promotion to Premier Division
3	A.F.C. Darwen (P)	36	20	8	8	103	60	+43	68	Qualification for Playoffs
4	Hanley Town	36	21	4	11	89	63	+26	67
5	Holker Old Boys	36	18	6	12	79	50	+29	60
6	Chadderton	36	18	6	12	68	56	+12	60
7	Barnton	36	18	5	13	77	66	+11	59
8	Daisy Hill	36	15	7	14	57	68	−11	52
9	Litherland REMYCA	36	13	8	15	72	73	−1	47
10	Cheadle Town	36	13	7	16	68	67	+1	46
11	Northwich Flixton Villa	36	12	9	15	73	65	+8	45
12	Atherton Laburnum Rovers	36	12	7	17	46	70	−24	43
13	Rochdale Town	36	11	9	16	71	84	−13	42
14	Irlam	36	11	8	17	51	64	−13	41
15	Eccleshall	36	12	5	19	47	91	−44	41
16	Widnes	36	10	5	21	62	101	−39	35
17	Ashton Town	36	7	6	23	51	78	−27	27
18	Oldham Boro	36	6	7	23	37	105	−68	25	Clubs resigned from league at end of season
19	Wigan Robin Park	36	7	3	26	41	113	−72	24	Clubs resigned from league at end of season

Updated to match(es) played on 25 April 2015. Source: NWCFL League Tables Archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Playoffs

Semifinals			Final

3	A.F.C. Darwen	2

6	Chadderton	1
			3	A.F.C. Darwen	5

			4	Hanley Town	3
4	Hanley Town	3

5	Holker Old Boys	1

Results

Home \ Away	DAR	AST	ACO	ALR	BAR	CAM	CHA	CHT	DSH	ECC	HAN	HOB	IRL	LIT	NFV	OLD	RCH	WID	WRP
A.F.C. Darwen		2–1	2–0	3–1	5–1	2–1	0–1	2–2	0–2	3–2	0–3	2–0	4–1	1–1	5–4	9–0	4–3	6–1	7–2
Ashton Town	1–2		2–2	5–0	3–4	1–2	0–3	1–0	1–1	1–2	1–2	4–2	3–1	3–3	3–2	2–3	3–0	1–4	1–1
Atherton Collieries	4–1	3–0		4–0	2–1	2–2	5–1	3–1	5–3	5–1	5–0	3–1	3–0	6–0	3–0	5–0	6–1	3–0	5–1
Atherton Laburnum Rovers	2–2	3–0	0–3		0–3	1–3	0–3	2–1	1–0	2–2	5–3	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–2	2–6	2–1	2–0	1–4
Barnton	3–3	1–0	0–3	0–1		1–6	1–0	2–2	2–3	2–1	1–6	0–3	3–2	1–0	2–2	1–1	4–1	7–0	6–1
Cammell Laird 1907	3–1	4–0	1–2	1–1	4–3		5–0	3–0	5–0	5–0	2–0	1–0	3–1	5–1	3–1	5–2	2–2	6–1	4–1
Chadderton	1–6	1–0	0–3	2–0	3–2	1–0		0–1	4–1	3–0	3–2	1–3	4–1	2–2	2–2	0–0	1–4	2–1	3–2
Cheadle Town	1–1	1–2	1–2	2–1	0–3	3–4	1–1		1–0	2–3	0–2	0–0	0–3	4–3	2–1	3–1	2–2	3–5	8–1
Daisy Hill	0–5	2–2	0–0	4–0	2–1	1–2	1–2	4–3		3–1	2–4	1–0	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–0	2–1	0–4	4–0
Eccleshall	1–1	2–1	1–3	2–1	0–2	1–5	2–1	0–1	2–3		1–7	1–1	3–2	3–2	1–0	2–1	0–2	0–6	4–3
Hanley Town	3–1	6–0	0–6	1–1	3–1	0–4	0–2	3–2	1–1	1–1		4–2	3–0	3–0	2–4	3–1	1–1	2–1	1–2
Holker Old Boys	6–2	3–1	1–3	2–1	0–0	2–4	1–0	4–2	5–0	5–1	5–2		2–0	1–3	4–1	3–0	2–3	5–0	2–2
Irlam	2–1	2–1	1–5	0–3	2–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	1–2	2–2	0–2	2–0		2–0	2–2	0–0	1–0	1–1	4–1
Litherland REMYCA	3–3	2–1	1–3	1–1	0–2	3–3	2–1	1–3	3–3	1–4	2–0	1–4	2–0		2–1	7–1	6–2	1–2	4–0
Northwich Flixton Villa	0–1	2–1	3–2	4–0	1–2	0–1	1–4	2–1	1–2	3–0	2–3	2–2	3–3	1–1		0–0	4–1	10–1	1–0
Oldham Boro	2–2	3–1	0–5	1–3	1–5	0–5	1–6	1–2	2–2	2–0	1–6	0–1	0–5	1–3	2–2		0–4	1–0	1–0
Rochdale Town	1–3	3–1	0–4	2–2	2–3	0–1	2–2	2–4	1–1	5–1	0–5	0–0	2–1	1–3	5–2	5–1		4–4	3–3
Widnes	0–4	2–2	0–5	2–3	2–4	0–5	2–2	0–4	4–2	5–0	2–3	1–2	3–2	1–4	1–1	2–0	1–2		2–0
Wigan Robin Park	1–7	2–1	0–6	1–0	1–2	0–3	1–6	0–3	1–2	0–1	1–2	1–5	1–0	0–4	0–5	3–1	2–3	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 25 April 2015. Source: NWCFL results archive
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Locations

Locations of the 2014–15 North West Counties Football League Division One teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity
Widnes	Select Security Stadium	13,350
A.F.C. Darwen	The Anchor Ground	4,000
Oldham Boro	Seel Park (groundshare with Mossley A.F.C.)	4,000
Atherton Laburnum Rovers	Crilly Park	3,000
Atherton Collieries	Alder Street	2,500
Holker Old Boys	Rakesmoor Lane Barrow-in-Furness	2,500
Ashton Town	Edge Green Street	2,000
Cammell Laird 1907	MBS Stadium, Birkenhead	2,000
Cheadle Town	Park Road Stadium	2,000
Daisy Hill	New Sirs Westhoughton	2,000
Northwich Flixton Villa	Valley Road, Flixton (groundshare with Northwich Victoria)	2,000
Chadderton	Andrew Street	1,500
Rochdale Town	Castleton Sports Centre	1,500
Wigan Robin Park	Robin Park Arena	1,200
Eccleshall	Pershall Park	1,000
Irlam	Silver Street	1,000
Hanley Town	Abbey Lane	750
Barnton	Townfield
Litherland REMYCA	Litherland Sports Park

League Challenge Cup

Also called the MEN United Cup for sponsorship reasons.

First Round

Each Premier Division club, together with Oldham Boro of Division One, received a bye to the second round.

Home team	Score	Away team
Ashton Town	6–2	Chadderton
Atherton Collieries	4–2 (aet)	Cheadle Town
Barnton	0–1	Widnes
Cammell Laird 1907	4–1	Northwich Flixton Villa
Daisy Hill	2–1 (aet)	Atherton Laburnum Rovers

Home team	Score	Away team
Eccleshall	1–3	Rochdale Town
Holker Old Boys	0–3	A.F.C. Darwen
Irlam	4–1	Litherland REMYCA
Wigan Robin Park	2–3	Hanley Town

Second Round

Home team	Score	Away team
Abbey Hey	2–0	Maine Road
A.F.C. Liverpool	3–2	Bacup & Rossendale Borough
Ashton Athletic	0–3	Atherton Collieries
Ashton Town	3–3 (aet) pens 4–5	West Didsbury & Chorlton
Barnoldswick Town	2–3	1874 Northwich
Cammell Laird 1907	1–0	Runcorn Linnets
Congleton Town	1–4	Runcorn Town
Daisy Hill	2–3	Alsager Town

Home team	Score	Away team
Glossop North End	1–1 (aet) pens 4–2	A.F.C. Blackpool
Hanley Town	1–1 (aet) pens 3–5	Rochdale Town
Nelson	1–3	Squires Gate
Oldham Boro	0–1	Bootle
Silsden	0–1	Colne
Stockport Sports	[a]	A.F.C. Darwen
Widnes	4–4 (aet) pens 4–3	St Helens Town
Winsford United	2–1	Irlam

[a] No information about result or adjudication of this tie.

Third Round

Home team	Score	Away team
1874 Northwich	2–3 [b]	Colne
Abbey Hey	2–4	Atherton Collieries
Alsager Town	2–1 [c]	A.F.C. Liverpool
Bootle	2–1 (aet)	A.F.C. Darwen

[b] Match played at Colne.
[c] Alsager Town eliminated for fielding ineligible player.^[7]

Home team	Score	Away team
Glossop North End	8–0	Widnes
Runcorn Town	0–2 [d]	Cammell Laird 1907
Squires Gate	1–1 (aet) pens 6–5	Winsford United
West Didsbury & Chorlton	2–0	Rochdale Town

[d] Cammell Laird 1907 eliminated for fielding ineligible player.^[7]

Quarter Finals

Home team	Score	Away team
A.F.C. Liverpool	0–2 (aet)	Runcorn Town
Colne	0–2	Atherton Collieries

Home team	Score	Away team
Glossop North End	3–0	Squires Gate
West Didsbury & Chorlton	0–3	Bootle

Semi Finals

Home team	Score	Away team
Runcorn Town	0–1	Atherton Collieries

Home team	Score	Away team
Glossop North End	2–1	Bootle

Final

	Score
Atherton Collieries	0–2	Glossop North End
Played at Curzon Ashton, Tameside Stadium

First Division Trophy

Also called the Reusch First Division Cup for sponsorship reasons.

Preliminary Round

Each of the remaining Division One clubs received a bye to the second round.

Northern Section

Home team	Score	Away team
A.F.C. Darwen	4–3	Wigan Robin Park
Ashton Town	3–1	Chadderton

Southern Section

Home team	Score	Away team
Eccleshall	0–3	Northwich Flixton Villa