Eastwood Town F.C.

Did You Know?

• Eastwood Town's record attendance was 2,723 for an FA Amateur Cup match against Enfield in February 1965.
• Peter Knox scored 259 goals for the club between 2004 and 2011.
• The club received a fee of £72,500 for Richard Liburd when he moved to Middlesbrough in 1992–93.
• Eastwood Town won the Nottinghamshire Senior Cup 16 times, including in 2010–11 and 2011–12.

History

Eastwood Town Football Club was founded in 1955. The team played in the Midland League during the 1970s, then became a founding member of the Northern Counties East Football League in 1983. They moved to the Northern Premier League in 1987, but returned to the NCEL for the 2003–04 season. The 2008–09 campaign brought a memorable FA Cup run, with victories over Wrexham and Wycombe Wanderers before reaching the third round.

That same season, Eastwood won the league title and earned their first promotion to the Conference North. In their second year at that level, they finished fourth but were barred from the playoffs because their ground failed to meet the required grade. The owners then put the club up for sale. In November 2013, a winding-up petition was issued over an unpaid £168,000 tax bill, and council officials locked the club out of Coronation Park. After five consecutive home games were postponed, Eastwood resigned from the Northern Premier League in February 2014.

Stadium

There had been a lot of work done in the background and plans had been drawn up to bring the ground up to the 'A' grade required to enter the Conference National. The plans showed new terracing holding 1900 fans behind both goals and a new seated stand replacing the Mabe Allan Stand almost down the entire length of the pitch. This would have given the club three fully enclosed stands and a capacity of over 5,000. With the plans for the academy and other projects, the club was in negotiations with the local authorities to take over the existing all-weather pitch situated within Coronation Park along with the changing rooms.

The plan was to redevelop the pitch into a full sized 3G pitch, with the adjoining area being developed into an outdoor juniors pitch for use of the community and Eastwood Town Juniors. This would have given the club the infrastructure to attract the best local youngsters as well as players released from professional clubs academies. The club had received a few complaints from residents on Chewton Street about the increased problems associated with matchday parking and this was another issue that had been raised and negotiations were in progress with the council to address the situation, with the objective of providing more car parking facilities at the club.

The club were also in discussions with the council about additional signage off the A610, and the end of Chewton Street.