Oldham County A.F.C.
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| Full name | Oldham County Association Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | County, the Counts[1] |
| Founded | 1895 |
| Dissolved | 1897 |
| Ground | Athletic Ground |
| Secretaries | W. Clarkson (financial), J. Jones (correspondence) |
| Chairman | J. Dyson |
Oldham County Association Football Club was an association football club from Oldham, Lancashire, active in the 1890s.
The club was formed in 1895, to bring the association code to a rugby union town, and it was admitted to The Combination for the 1895–96 season.[2] The new club got off to a promising start, 4,000 spectators turning up to a narrow home defeat to Everton reserves.[3] It finished the season 4th out of 8 clubs.[4]
The season had been however a financial disaster, the club running a loss of £235 after gate receipts added up to £317 but player wages ran to £277.[5] Before the 1896–97 season, a new limited liability company, the Oldham County Football and Athletic Company Limited, was formed, with proposed capital of £4,000, to take over the assets and liabilities of the A.F.C., with the aim of building a new ground, adding tracks for trotting, cycling, and athletics.[6] The club stepped up to the higher standard Lancashire League[7] and enjoyed a mid-table finish.[8] It also had a decent run in the 1896–97 FA Cup qualifying rounds, winning through two ties before going down to Nelson at the third stage.[9]
However the club struggled with finances off-field, the cost of the new ground proving crippling.[10] In October 1896, a toxic dispute broke out players and club. Seven players went on strike claiming they had not been given promised written contract, or part-time jobs to supplement their pay, and they had not received their winning bonuses; the directors denied these allegations,[11] but the club's season was derailed. Later in the year, the wife of a previous club secretary successfully sued the club for the return of £10 which she had lent at the start of the season.[12]
Despite this, the club planned to apply to join the Football League at the end of the 1896–97 season,[13] but the application was hopeless, and the club came crashing down in November 1897. After landscape gardener J. J. Ashton presented a winding-up against the club for his £550 fees for designing the Athletic Ground,[14] it withdrew from the Lancashire League,[15] two directors were made bankrupt at the end of the month,[16] and the club was formally wound up on 9 December.[17] By 1900, most of the club directors, who were mostly working men on minimal wages, had been made bankrupt, as they had guaranteed Ashton's fees.[18][19]