In this edition, it’s an ex North West Club who many supporters and readers under the age of around fifty will probably not be aware even existed. Yet this club were Football League members for 28 years. New Brighton Football club were elected to Division 3 North in 1923 and played their very first League game at their Sandheys Park ground in August of that year against Chesterfield. A crowd in excess of 3,000 were in attendance to witness a goalless draw.


The Club had purchased the land at Sandheys Park in 1921 and built a 1,000 seat covered stand and terraced paddocks. The ground was located on Rakes Lane in Wallasey and that gave rise to the nickname of “The Rakers” a name that stayed with the club for their entire existence, despite later moving grounds. The club were later to move to The Tower Athletic Ground, a Stadium previously occupied by New Brighton Tower FC, who themselves had a short spell as a League Club from 1896 until they folded in 1901.


Sandheys Park recorded it’s highest ever attendance just the following season, when 15,173 turned up for a local derby against Tranmere Rovers. The following seasons, and indeed for almost three decades, New Brighton FC had quite an undistinguished existence in The 3^rd Division North, Two top ten finishes and a 3^rd place finish in 1925 were the best the club achieved. In fact after 1928, they never featured in the top ten ever again.



As a result the club moved to the nearby Tower Athletic Ground. The ground had been built by the New Brighton Tower Company at the turn of the century and consisted of a football pitch surrounded by running and cycling tracks. There were covered seated stands on either side of the pitch and standing areas at each end. It was at the time the biggest sporting and motorcycling track in the North of England, reputed to have a capacity in excess of 80,000. However, by 1946 that Capacity had been reduced to about 20,000


New Brighton's first League match at the Tower Athletic Ground on 4 September 1946 was a Third Division North game against Bradford City watched by 7,500 spectators, which finished 0–0. A derby match against Tranmere Rovers later in September saw the ground's record League attendance of 14,291 set.



From 1952 New Brighton FC remained at The Tower Athletic Ground while playing in the West Cheshire League. The club were forced to leave the ground in 1954 but returned just one year later as joint tenants with Wallasey Corporation. In 1957, the Stadiums overall attendance record was set when over 16,000 attended a 3^rd Round FA Cup tie against Torquay United, following victories over Stockport County and Derby County in previous rounds.. The Rakers winning 2-1 against The Seagulls. They unfortunately came unstuck at Turf Moor in the 4^th Round, Burnley winning the tie 9-0.


The club continued as a Semi Professional team until 1965, but by then they had long since left The Tower Athletic Ground. Financial issues had seen them in debt to the Inland Revenue and eventually after a short spell paling in Hoylake they undertook a ground share with Local side Newton FC. The clubs existence came to an end in 1983. The club had tried to rally the local population but there was little response and the club was disbanded.


A new club under the New Brighton FC name was launched in 1993, playing in the West Cheshire League. They lasted until 2012. However another new venture started just last year in 2023, has seen the New Brighton AFC name again relaunched. The new club have ambitions to join the Non League Pyramid.