Club History

Frodsham JFC was formed in 1979 when parents Les Maddock, Geoff Prince and Tom Wilkinson formed an under 10s boys team. The first match was played at Castle Park with Frodsham wearing their now famous black and red stripes. The Club’s first Secretary was Ron Couchman.

Initially the Club ran two teams at U11s and U9s with a total of 32 children playing competitive football.

Affiliated to Runcorn District FA since the Club’s inception playing its first competitive matches in the Runcorn and District Junior Leagues, Frodsham JFC was one of the founder clubs in the original Runcorn U9s league, which initially, was not recognised by the Football Association.

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A Family Club

Frodsham JFC has always been a family Club, with many generations of the same families, playing and coaching within the Club. One such former player, now coach is Steve Roughsedge, who has kindly share the account below of his time as a player in the 1980s an 90s:

As The 1987/88 Season arrived, the Club needed a fresh, new impetus. Luckily, up stepped Club stalwart and true visionary Derek Woods who oversaw a period of unrivalled dominance for Frodsham that may never be witnessed again.

Following trials at Frodsham Manor House School, Frodsham stumbled on a batch of young, hungry players ready to take the club forward. 

At the start of 1989/90, Derek encouraged an energetic, dynamic management team lead by Rob Roughsedge and consisted of Alan Reid, Steve Wilcockson and Steve Pennington who expertly guided Frodsham Under 9’s through a season not to be forgotten.

Not only did they rip up the red and black stripes for a more silver and maroon flavour but the honours list read as follows:

• Police Cup Winners
• League Shield Winners
• Schering Challenge Cup Winners
• Halton Borough Cup Runners Up***

Yet, the pièce de résistance was being crowned Runcorn and District League Champions as invincibles!
(P16 – W15 – D1 – L0)

Even The Tabloids were sitting up to take notice! 

In 1990/91, the new Under 9’s didn’t stop there, Frodsham won the lot again! Adding The Halton Borough Cup , Frodsham demolished Schering’s 4-0 in the final making it a clean sweep, adding 5 trophies to The Frodsham Juniors ever expanding Trophy Cabinet.

 

Still more success followed in 1991/92 with another League Victory and even more questionable kit choices!! Victory in The S Hampson Cup Final was the cherry on the cake despite two defeats by Runcorn Villa in The J Bazley Cup Final and District Cup Final.

Each of these defeats stung but still Frodsham were the team to beat…

 …so much so, at the start of The 1994/95 season, Frodsham were evicted from The Runcorn District League due to their dominance thus commencing their relationship with The Mid Cheshire Youth League which still holds strong today.

League Championships were now becoming scarce but stand out final victories were as follows:

• 1996/97 District Cup Final win against Over Athletic on penalties.
• 1998/99 a 4-3 victory against Grappenhall in The League Cup which was then retained a year later in
• 1999/00 against Tytherington.

Each will remain in Frodsham folklore.

As a club, it’s thrilling to see many of the players that took part back then are now still involved with Frodsham in either a coaching capacity or watching their sons or daughters turning out in the “true” Frodsham colours of red and black!

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The Club has played in the Mid-Cheshire Youth Football League for over 20 years.

Ste Cunniffe and Tracy Malone formed the first girls’ team in 2003 and within 2 weeks they had recruited 52 players!

In 2014, the Frodsham JFC Mini Soccer tournament was reintroduced, initially as a one-day event for Under 6s – Under 10s; the event attracted 71 teams and over 1,500 attendees.

Subsequently the tournament was expanded the following year and now annually hosts over 140 boys and girls teams from Under 7s to Under 12s with over 3,000 spectators over two days.

In 2015, the Club updated its constitution, expanding the Executive Committee from three members to nine, reflecting the growth the Club had seen in the preceding years. At the same time, the Coach and Player Development Committee was created as a dedicated body to over see the playing aspects of the Club.

In 2016 the Club was awarded FA Community Status, the highest Standard for an FA club and is officially classified as an FA Charter Standard Community Football Club.

In 2017 the Club formed a partnership with Helsby High School for the use of the school playing fields for home fixtures and summer training, creating a ‘home’ for our Club.

Prior to this partnership, the Club had hosted its home matches at several different locations across the area, a situation that not only created an administrative challenge, but was also an obstacle to the “One Club” atmosphere that we aspire to.

In 2019 the Club became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), which means that as a legal entity the Club has charitable status.

2020 will see the realisation of a long held dream for Frodsham JFC with the building and opening of a brand new 3G-football pitch and changing facility on site at Helsby High School. This £1 million plus project, driven by Frodsham Junior Football Club in partnership with Helsby High School, Cheshire West and Chester Council and the Football Foundation has taken many years to fund and bring to fruition.

Our Club has a bright future and we look forward to adding may more milestones to this very page.

If you have a historic connection to our Club or if you have any information, which will help to expand this documented history, please email marketing@frodshamjfc.co.uk.