Ramsbottom United

Ramsbottom United Football Club are an English football club based in Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester. Nicknamed "The Rams", they currently compete in the Northern Premier League Division One West and play their home matches at the Harry Williams Riverside Stadium, Acrebottom, Ramsbottom. They are full members of the Lancashire County Football Association.

History

The club was founded in 1966 by present chairman Harry Williams. They first played in the Bury Amateur League.

In 1969 Ramsbottom moved leagues to the Bolton Combination. In the 1972–1973 season they won the Division One Championship and in the 1976–1977 season they won the Premier Division. The Rams spent a total of twenty years in this league before moving in 1989 to the Manchester League, playing in Division One. The 1989–90 they finished in third place, and the following season were Division One champions, earning promotion to the Premier Division, where they spent the next four seasons. At the end of the 1994–95 season, the club applied to the North West Counties Football League and following substantial ground improvements, were admitted into the league's Second Division in June 1995.

In their first season, The Rams finished twelfth and also won the Second Division Trophy with a 2–1 victory over Cheadle Town at Darwen's Anchor Ground. The following season they were crowned Second Division champions, pipping local rivals Haslingden on goal difference on the last day of the season. On 9 November 1996 they beat Stantondale 9–0, setting a club record winning margin and they also won all of their first 17 home fixtures. The club also entered the FA Vase for the first time, losing in the first qualifying round 0–1 at home to Tetley Walker.

The 1997–98 season, The Rams first season in First Division, the club finished Seventeenth. The following season saw the club finish in Eleventh place and also enter the FA Cup for the first time. They beat Maine Road 2–1 in a replay in the preliminary round, then