The Beginning – 1995-2009

Winton Wanderers FC was formed in 1995, by Chairman Paul Doyle. His idea was to bring football in to the local community, and to provide a hub for local children to engage in positive activity, from a physical and social point of view. Children and adults alike, benefited from the greater sense of togetherness, direction and reward – with boys and girls, men and women, taking part in weekly activity.

 

Club Relaunch – 2009-2015

In 2009, following the council’s temporary ground closure, the club was relaunched. The club entered an under 16’s team into a local league for 2 years. With the help of Salford CVS and Sported, the club purchased equipment, trained coaches and bought a cabin for changing rooms – then a new chapter began.

 

The club introduced a Sunday Academy to involve and coach a better numbers of kids, from this the club created an under 10’s team, before the Open Age team returned to the club. Silverware was already in the bag with a Junior Cup victory, and with the promotion, more teams were formed in 2012.

 

Club Growth – 2015-Present

By the start 2015 the club had 6 established football teams ranging from U7 to U11 and the core of a girls football team which would be going by the end of the year.

Whilst this was our biggest year to date it didn’t come without it’s set backs. A whole new committee was needed as a few people who were vital to the clubs relaunch felt it was time to step back.

However, we used this as a trigger to grow the club even further.

 

2016/2017 season saw us re brand the academy so that it only had children from U5-6 to allow the children to develop with there own age group. This has proved to be a catalyst for future seasons.

Also this year we really pushed girls football in Salford and were one of the biggest driving forces in the local area. At the end of the season we had 13 established teams with 6 of those girls only teams.

We were also selected as a Wildcat center on the back of our hard work in promoting girls football.

 

2017/2018 season saw us grow once again with 17 teams finishing the season and our academy had 34 children in waiting to start playing football at U7.

This was unprecedented for Winton Wanderers at the time as we usually struggled to have enough players to field 1 team in September at U7.

We had approx 230 children playing for Winton Wanderers at that time. We had a brilliant end of season presentation at AJ Bell Stadium to celebrate the clubs success.

 

2018/2019 season saw our most significant growth season. We fielded teams from every age from U7-U17 this season and there were over 330 players receiving trophies at the end of season awards at Old Trafford. The academy now had 57 children in from U4-U6. We still had the 6 girls teams but had relaunched our Wildcat centre which would really benefit us in later years. We also had 15 mixed teams including 3 U7s which showed the hard work in the academy was paying off. 8 children received 5 year service awards which was great to see as they were a key part in our relaunch years.

 

2019/2020 season was a bit of crazy one. COVID-19 meant that the season was cut short in what was our biggest season ever on our 25th Anniversary year. We had 28 teams finish the season covering U7-U18. We also had 7 girls teams from U9-U15.

Our academy grew again to 60 children with 4 teams ready to go next season at U7. A further 13 children were eligible for their 5 year service awards too. In total we had 422 receiving trophies at the end of the season making Winton Wanderers one of the biggest clubs in Salford!

 

None of this could be done without the hard work by Adam, Paul, Simon, Wez, Michelle, etc when the club relaunched in 2009 and we are forever grateful for getting Winton Wanderers back on its feet and become the club it is today.

 

Looking in to this season we currently have 33 teams entered in to various leagues around the North West as well as an Academy which is constantly growing. 44 children on course for 5 years service award at the end of this season…….