An eventful year for Kirkham & Wesham
By Howard Jones, Press Officer, Kirkham & Wesham
My father once told me as a young lad: “If you don’t ask, you will never know”.
Well, that old adage was summed by the events on the day that FA Vase trophy arrived at Kirkham & Wesham’s small but picturesque ground on the outskirts of the town back in early September. And, it was all thanks to one man, their ambitious and successful manager, Mick Fuller.
Fuller, who cut his teeth in the local non-league scene as a player with Tornado FC and then went on to play at a higher standard with Rossendale United, eventually began to find his feet in management at Kirkham & Wesham in the mid 90s.
And from there on in, the story for Fuller, and for Kirkham & Wesham, has been one of almost constant success. Indeed, it’s fair to say that the club in recent seasons has arguably had its hands on more silverware than the local H. Samuels’ jewellers.
A constant flow of West Lancashire League titles (seven out of the past eight seasons) and a string of cup final wins would have propelled most clubs to a higher grade of football - but not Kirkham & Wesham. The town, which lies just about half way between Preston and Blackpool had one major obstacle in moving on up the football pyramid - they had no ground. Well, that’s not exactly true!
At the time they were playing on what can only be described as a ‘park pitch’ in the centre of town and their Coronation Road facility was a million miles away from enabling them to find more success anywhere else other than in the confines of the West Lancashire League. But they had someone on their side who could change things - chairman Dai Davis.
Davis, a successful local businessman was if you pardon the pun, ‘a die-hard’ Kirkham man and loved his football team. So much so, that he confronted his committee of able helpers a few years back and posed the question: “Do you want a pub team or a proper football team?”.
The vote to a man was for a ‘proper football team’ and from that day on the club was on the march to greater things. Davis began the move to find them a facility that would enable them to finally enjoy the fruits of their championship wins, because, as he said: “Playing at Coronation Road wasn’t an option”.
Constantly banging their heads against a brick wall with their local council to re-develop Coronation Road or find them land in the town, the football committee finally voted to move the club outside town to a purpose built facility 3.8 miles away at Warton, on the coast, and just yards from the main gates at British Aerospace where the current Eurofighter aircraft is being built.
Macclesfield Town opened the new facility, although spartan as it was, in July 2006 and the club spent a season in the West Lancashire League at Warton before deciding to push things along at a pace in the New Year of 2007.
There soon followed a new 200 seat main stand, floodlights and enclosure of the ground, and with the football pitch already recognised as one of the best in local football, the club was ready to move forward with an application to join the NWCFL.
However, all was not plain sailing. Constant poor weather hampered the final weeks of construction at the ground, and when the league grading committee came to inspect, the club’s application to move up was knocked back on more than 15 points.
By then, though, the club had acquired a second major financial backer in local businessman David Haythornthwaite, who some 18 months previous had put in a serious bid to take control of Blackpool FC. That didn’t happen but his great friend Dai Davis approached Haythornthwaite and the two got together to move Kirkham & Wesham on into a new future.
His arrival signalled the final piece in the financial jigsaw that would enable the club to move up - if only they could gain admittance to the NWCFL. That came about in May 2007 following an appeal to the FA. When they too knocked back the clubs application even though their facility was finally fully up to the higher grading standard, it was put to the member NWCFL clubs to vote on the proposal to admit the Fylde based club.
And to everyone’s relief on the hard working Kirkham & Wesham committee, the club finally had their application to move up rubber stamped. That was in mid-June 2007. Around this time the ground was renamed Kellamergh Park (drop the “gh” from the end and you’ll pronounce it properly!). Kellamergh, by the way, is the district of Warton that the ground is situated in.
Fast forward to the start of the current season, and straight away playing football at the higher grade proved to be little problem, as the club shot to the top of the Vodkat League Division Two table in the first weeks of the season, finally making everyone in the area sit up and take notice.
One of the club’s long standing ambitions had been to play in the FA competitions, and admittance to the Vodkat League gave them an opportunity to enter the FA Vase for the first time. And it was at that point that boss Fuller first got the idea to bring the actual trophy north from FA headquarters at Soho Square.
He said: “When we got a home draw in the opening round, it was always going to be a big day for us. My mind turned to how best we could generate some publicity, for what was the our most important game in our history.”
The draw had been kind to Kirkham & Wesham, and they had a massive incentive to do well in the Vase. When the draw for the first three rounds was made, if successful the club would have three home matches in the early rounds, with Northern Counties East side Worsborough Bridge Athletic the first to come to Kellamergh Park. “I made a few quick phone calls to the FA and followed it up with a letter,” said Fuller.
The rest, as they say, is history and on a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon in early September the FA Vase duly arrived at Kellamergh Park with two big burly FA officials, in what can only be described as a massive trunk case.
The trophy looked glittering to say the least and for two hours it sat proudly in front of the clubs new main stand with both Worsbrough and Kirkham squads lining up to have their team photos taken with the trophy. Fuller was asked later how the day had gone.
He said: “It was fantastic. Not only did we beat Worsborough 3-1 but we had the trophy here and the fans came to have a look at it too. A great day in every way for the club”.
Indeed, it was. And it all goes to prove what we said at the start - ‘if you don’t ask, then you will never know’.
Dreams are made of this, and the Wembley trail continues for Kirkham & Wesham. In those later home qualifying ties they went on to defeat Doncaster side Brodsworth Welfare 4-3 with a last minute winner, and then Parkgate from Rotherham were seen off 5-0 in the First Round Proper.
That booked a place in the next round of the Vase, and once again the draw has been kind to Kirkham & Wesham, presenting them with a plum home tie against former FA Amateur Cup Finalists, West Auckland Town, at Kellamergh Park on Saturday November 17.
It should be quite a day.
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