Nelson F.C.

Did You Know?

• Nelson were the first English team to beat Real Madrid in Spain, winning 4–2 during a pre-season tour in the summer of 1923.
• The club's record attendance at Seedhill was 14,143 for a 2–2 draw with Bradford Park Avenue on 10 April 1926.
• Half back Jack Newnes was the only Nelson player ever capped at international level, playing for Wales against Northern Ireland in the 1925-26 season.
• Nelson scored 125 league goals in the 1949–50 season, when they were crowned Lancashire Combination champions and also won the Lancashire Combination Cup.
• The club's last game in the Football League was a 4–0 defeat to Hull City on 2 May 1931.

History

A meeting at the Victoria Hall on Scotland Road on 23 October 1882, presided over by John Greenwood, enrolled about 25 members to the newly formed Nelson Football Club. A trial match on 11 November 1882 saw the Probables beat a team of Improbables 3–0, and the club's first reported game was a 3–1 home defeat to Burnley Olympic on 2 December 1882. Nelson became founder members of the Lancashire League in the 1889–90 season, finishing fourth, and won the league in 1895–96 with 22 wins from 30 games and 105 goals scored.

After a month-long FA suspension, the club ceased operations during the 1898–99 season following a 3–2 home defeat to Ashton North End on 12 January, with the ground seized due to debts; the Lancashire FA expelled the club and its records were expunged. Following a season in the North-East Lancashire Combination, where Nelson finished as champions and beat Oswaldtwistle Rovers 4–1 in the Shield Final, the reformed club joined the Lancashire League for 1900–01, finishing sixth.

They moved to the Lancashire Combination in 1901–02, and after the league expanded into two divisions in 1903–04, Nelson played in Division One until being relegated to Division Two in 1906–07, returning after one season. The club stopped playing before the 1916–17 season due to player call-ups for World War I and financial losses, restarting in 1918 and joining the Central League in 1919–20 for two seasons. In 1921, Nelson joined the Football League as a founder member of the Third Division North, with their first league game a 2–1 defeat to Wigan Borough attracting a record attendance of 9,000 on 27 August 1921; the team finished 16th that season.

Playing grounds

Nelson F.C. began playing at the Seedhill Cricket Ground in 1882, staying there for two years. They then moved to the Flower Show Field on Scotland Road, opposite The Derby Inn, for the 1884–1885 season. After a season at an unknown site outside town in 1885–1886, they returned to the Flower Show Field for 1886–1887. In March of that period, despite a suspension from the Lancashire FA, the club agreed to go back to the Nelson Cricket Club.

From 1887 to 1889, they were again at the Seedhill Cricket Ground, which had been renamed the Seedhill Football Ground, until a new enclosure opened on 16 March. The club is often linked to the Park Ground or Parkside Ground, a connection that gave them the nickname The Parksiders. These names may refer to the same Seedhill site or to other local fields. In April 1888, the Burnley Express reported that the club had accepted an offer from the cricketers to swap ends and play on the left side of the field instead of the right for the 1887–1888 season.

A year later, the same paper noted the Seedhill Men’s first senior match in the new enclosure on 16 March 1889, a 6–0 loss to Burnley. The 1890 Ordnance Survey map shows a football area on the southern edge of the cricket ground, with a small building, possibly a pavilion, to the left of the pitch. In the 1890s, the club considered moving to a site near Kew Gardens in 1892 and a field behind the Golden Ball Inn in 1895, but rental costs made both moves unworkable.

At Seedhill, the ground had a small wooden stand, a covered enclosure behind one goal, and grass banking around the rest. A larger wooden stand with a 2,000 capacity was built in 1922. The record attendance of 14,979 came on 27 April 1929 for a Third Division North match against Bradford City, which Nelson lost 1–0. The Burnley Express noted the gate receipts of £810, more than the total from the previous six matches.