NEW BRIGHTON

On the 15th March 1947 New Brighton's manager, Neil McBain, a centre half, was in charge of his side's Division 3 North fixture against Hartlepool. With no subs available (in those days) he saw his goalkeeper get injured and had to take his place. Nothing unusual about that apart from the fact that he was 51 years and 120 days old, a league "age" record to this day.

New Brighton FC was originally known as the New Brighton Tower FC and that club existed from 1896 until 1901. It played at the purpose built Tower Athletic Ground, sited in the shadow of the Blackpool Tower, built to hold 80,000 people. The point was to add a "winter" attraction to the Blackpool sea front to encourage all year round finances.

The first fixture was against Gainsborough Trinity in front of a 2,000 crowd that saw NBTFC win 3-2. On January 14th 1899 Manchester City visited and won 1-0 in front of 10,000 spectators.
The last match played at the ground was a victory over Woolwich Arsenal 1-0 on April 24th 1901 (2,000 crowd).
As you will realise, it never quite worked with some signed on "wage earners" playing in front of only 1,000 people, the club quickly lost money. It disbanded in 1901 and was replaced by Doncaster Rovers FC.

New Brighton FC, situated in South Liverpool, played in the Lancashire Combination from 1921, then joined the Football League when it expanded in 1923-4 coming 18th in their first season. In 1924-5 the team came 3rd, their best position but they were never out of "double figures" in the division through the pre-War and post-War periods. In 1950-1, the club came 24th and bottom of the division and were not re-elected to the league for the new season. The club played at Rake Lane and were known as The Rakers.

In their time their best place in the FA Cup was reaching the 4th Round proper where they lost to Notts County away 0-2. On their way to this defeat, in the 1st Round they were drawn at home and beat Barnet, then another win over Darlington at home and then remarkably at home win to Sheffield Wednesday.

In 1983 the club disbanded and reformed to play in the Birkenhead and Wirral League, then was promoted to the West Cheshire League, eventually folding in 2012. The ground became a housing estate.