Radcliffe 1-0 Macclesfield Town
National League North
Saturday 25th April 2026
Radcliffe Borough was formed in May 1949 at the Owd Tower Inn by Jack Pickford and a 17 strong committee and accepted into the South East Lancashire Football League. The club moved onto the Manchester League, before progressing to Lancashire Combination in 1963.
Cheshire County League 1971 - 1982.
North West Counties League (founder members) 1982 - 1987
Second Division Champions: 1982–83 First Division Champions: 1984–85
Northern Premier League 1987 - 2024
Division One Champions: 1996–97 (Play-off winners: 2002–03 2018–19)
The club dropped Borough from their name in 2018.
Premier Division Champions: 2023–24
National League North 2024 - present
Neuven Stadium
Stainton Park
Radcliffe,
Manchester M26 3TQ
Boro originally leased a field off Ashworth Street for two years, before moving across Eton Hill Road to a pitch on Betley Street leased from the Earl of Wilton. The following year the club turned the pitch 180 degrees parallel with Bright Street.
In 1970, the site was selected for redevelopment, so after a 12-month spell playing their home fixtures outside the town at the Whitehouse Sports Ground in Crumpsall, the club were able to move to the current site at Red Bank on Pilkington Road. Radcliffe Borough named the new ground Stainton Park after Mr. Henry Stainton, a local builder and the Club's president.
The ground has been upgraded with a new pitch, floodlights and a sports clinic. The stands are basically all the same size, with a seated stand behind one goal and two stands behind the other, made up of a standing terrace and a diminutive seated stand. There's open terracing on the far side behind the team benches, and on the entrance side, the bottom half has cover.
Capacity 3,100
The first competitive fixture was Borough's home Lancashire Combination league fixture v Wigan Rovers on the 6th September 1969.
Record attendances - 2,338 - 28 August 2023 v FC United of Manchester (a 5-0.win) 2,473 - 17 September 2005 for a North West Counties League Division Two fixture between Castleton Gabriels and FC United of Manchester.
Radcliffe 1 Macclesfield Town 0
Rio Clegg 70’
National North matchday 46 (14th v 4th)
12.30ko
Att.1,502
Admission £15
Pin badge £3.50 Coffee £1.50
This was the final game at Stainton Park this season and I’m guessing it won’t go down as one of the best. The match was settled twenty minutes from time, when Rio Clegg scrambled the ball home.
#Heedhopper
150 miles door-to-door
0740 train from Newcastle via change at York, due at Manchester Victoria at 1021. Back home on the same route, departing at 1730, back to Toon for 2009.
I once made a vow to never travel to Manchester on the train again, but stupidly I forgot I had made this decisive decision, that’s the thing about getting older - you forget shit! To cut short a long story and leave out the boring facts, I arrived in Manchester 35 minutes later than scheduled and got back home 73 minutes late.
Apart from the travel chaos, I had a very enjoyable day. Thankfully, the tram network in Greater Manchester regularly runs, so it was a nice 25 minute ride up to Radcliffe and a twenty minute stroll to the ground in the blazing sunshine.
After the match, I visited four of the city's record shops and stumbled across a record fair at the Britannia Hotel. Obviously there were Good Beer Guide pubs in between, ticking off Fell Northern Quarter, The Old Monkey, North Westward Ho! and the Victoria Tap. So by and large an enjoyable afternoon, but from this day forward I must remember - DON’T BOOK TRAINS ACROSS THE PENNINES!
