Cradley Town F.C.

Cradley Town

Full name	Cradley Town Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Lukes, The Hammers
Founded	1948 (as Albion Haden United)
Ground	Beeches View, Beeches View Avenue, Cradley, Halesowen[1] (Capacity: 3,000)
Chairman	Bob Green
Manager	Russell Dodds
League	West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division
2010–11	West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division, 8th
Home colours Away colours

Cradley Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, near Dudley, in the West Midlands.

History

The club was originally formed in 1970 as Albion Haden United following a merger between Haden Rangers and Albion Rovers, changing its name in 1975.

In 1971 the club joined the Midland Football Combination in Division Two, and were league champions at the first attempt, but were not promoted. They also finished runners-up in Division Two on two occasions in the mid 1970s, but it was not until 1979 that they finally gained promotion to Division One. In 1983 they switched to the West Midlands (Regional) League, starting off in the Premier Division, but were relegated in their first season. Promotion back to the top flight came in 1991, and for the next seven seasons they were generally a mid-table team in the Premier Division. In 1998/99, however, a sudden change of form saw the Lukes finish in second place and gain promotion to the Midland Football Alliance, where they played until 2010, although in those eleven seasons in the league they have only twice finished outside the bottom four. They were finally relegated after finishing bottom in the 2009-10 season.

They have reached the second qualifying round of the FA Cup in season 2008-09.

On 9 November 2009 former Cheltenham Town, Halesowen Town and Tividale player Josh Skidmore was appointed manager with Ross Hill as assistant. Skidmore resigned as manager on 9 February 2010 due to work commitments. For the 2010–11 season Russell Dodds has taken over as manager installing Stu Hamilton, Les Palmer and Matt Ford as his backroom team.

References

1. ^ Mike and Tony Williams (2006). Non League Club Directory 2006. Tony Williams Publications Ltd. ISBN 1-869833-54-6. 

External links

• Cradley Town FC at clubwebsite.co.uk
• Pyramid Passion feature on their ground
• Cradley Town at the Football Club History Database