Bamber Bridge FC

Despite the club's origins dating back to the 1800s, the present day club of Bamber Bridge FC was not properly formed until 1952. In 1974 the club amalgamated with neighbouring club Walton-Le-Dale and, in an eight year period between 1974 and 1982, Bamber Bridge won the Preston League, the Guildhall Cup and the Lancashire Amateur Shield.

The plans for a new ground were put into operation in 1983, with the first game being played at the new Irongate Stadium in August 1987. Success followed and in the first half of the 90s the club reached the Semi Final of the FA Vase, won the A.T.S. Lancashire Cup, the Unibond Challenge Cup and gained promotion through three divisions, from the Third Division to the Premier by 1995. The club actually went on to win the title in the 1995/96 season and even played host to a Czech Republic side in a warm up match before they played their opening fixture of Euro 96 against Germany. However, Bamber Bridge could not emulate their success of the first part of the decade in the following seasons, and, despite finishing a respectable fourth in the 1998/99 season, they have been struggling at the wrong end of the Division since their title in 1996. In the 2001/02 season the club had a terrible campaign, winning only seven games all season. This left the club ten points adrift in last place come the end of May. Normally the club would have been directly relegated. However, due to Ossett Town not having a ground grading to meet Premier Division standards, as well as Bishop Auckland's demotion for the same reason, the Bridge were thrown a life line. A new play-off system had been introduced where by the team finishing third from bottom in the Premier would play off against the teams finishing third, fourth and fifth in the First Division. Under normal circumstances, this would have been Bishop Auckland, but they were relegated automatically and were replaced by First Division champions Harrogate. Therefore, due to Ossett Town's afore-mentioned troubles, Bamber Bridge took the play off spot.

They then defeated Radcliffe Borough (who finished fifth in the First Division) which put them into the Final were they played against Ashton United. However, unfortunately for Bamber, they failed to take their opportunity to survive as they lost the match 2-1 meaning Ashton went up and Bamber went down. However, the following year, due to the non-league's restructuring, the club's tenth place finish was enough for them to earn a place in the Unibond Premier Division.

Last season was a poor one for Bamber Bridge though and they were relegated from the Premier Divison.