Hereford

Hereford United Football Club are an English professional football club based in the city of Hereford. They were founded in 1924 and currently play in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. Originally elected to the Football League in 1972, they reached the old Second Division by 1976 but spent the majority of their first Football League spell in the bottom division. They were relegated to the Conference on the final day of the 1996-97 season, but regained their Football League status at the end of the 2005-06 season after winning the 2006 Conference Playoff Final.

Hereford have won relatively few honours in their history, the most recent silverware being the 1976 Third Division Championship and the 1990 Welsh Cup, in addition to the Conference play-off trophy. They became synonymous with giant-killing in the FA Cup after their memorable defeat of Newcastle United, in the 1971-72 FA Cup whilst still a Southern League team. Hereford have played at Edgar Street for their entire history and are nicknamed 'The Whites', after their predominantly white kit, and the 'The Bulls' after the local breed of cattle. The club's motto is "Our greatest glory lies not in never having fallen, but rising when we fall".

The club is managed by Graham Turner, the second longest-serving manager in the top four divisions of English football, who has since become chairman and director of football after joining in 1995. Turner took control of the club in 1998 when the club was in dire financial straits, steering the club away from near-extinction and back into the Football League. In twelve and a half years at the club he has spent just £40,000 on transfer fees whilst nurturing the careers of players such as Gavin Mahon, Gavin Williams, Paul Parry, Michael McIndoe, Andy Williams and Lionel Ainsworth.^[5]

Bury

The club was formed in 1885, and took a lease on a pitch at Gigg Lane, which remains their home today. In 1889 they were founder members of the Lancashire League, before joining the Football League Second Division in 1894, which they won at the first attempt. They beat Liverpool in a play-off to clinch promotion to Division One. They stayed there until 1912.

Bury have won the FA Cup twice. On April 21, 1900 they beat Southampton 4-0 at Crystal Palace, and before returning to the London venue in 1903. The latter win was achieved without conceding a goal in the entire competition, including a record FA Cup Final score of 6-0 over Derby County on April 18. The 1903 cup also had another great acivement for bury as the 6-o scorline still remains as the highest ever win in a fa cup final wich all players recived a medal for.

In 1923 they were promoted again, and in 1926 they achieved their highest League position ever, 4th in the First Division. But two years later they were relegated and never played top flight football again. Steady decline followed and by 1971, they had reached the Fourth Division for the first time.

They are nicknamed 'The Shakers' due to first chairman, JT Ingham who, before a Lancashire Cup game with Blackburn, said "We will shake them. In fact, we are the Shakers." Local rivals include Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic and Rochdale.

The Bury team pictured in 1892

Bury have produced great players over the years, including Les Hart, Dean Kiely, Terry McDermott, Alec Lindsay, Colin Bell, Neville Southall, Craig Madden, Lee Dixon and Roger Stanislaus. Perhaps Bury's most infamous player has been David Adekola, a Nigerian who came to Bury after successfully convincing football officials that he was a former Nigerian international player with top flight experience in Europe, though no records of such claims exist. Their recent history has witnessed some great success with youth development, with players such as Colin Kazim-Richards, David Nugent and Simon Whaley moving onto Premiership and Championship clubs to great acclaim.

Recently Bury became the first football club to score a thousand goals in each of the top four tiers of the English football league.

Currently they are in the 4th tier of English football, League Two. They were relegated to this level in the 2001-02 season - only ten years beforehand they were one promotion away from returning to the top flight.

Morecambe

Morecambe Football Club is an English football club based in Morecambe, Lancashire. They play their football in Football League Two, the fourth division of English football, having been promoted in 2007 for the first time in their history to The Football League.

Football in the town dates back to the turn of the 20th century; however it was only until 7 May 1920 that Morecambe FC was formed after a meeting at the local West View Hotel. The club then took its place in the Lancashire Combination League for the 1920-21 season.

Sharing grounds with the Cricket Club during the first season, football proved popular, with crowds in excess of 3,000 for derby fixtures with Lancaster and Fleetwood. Although success on the field was hard to come by, with the club lanquishing near the bottom of the table, at the end of the first season the club moved grounds to Roseberry Park. A few years later after the purchase of the ground by the then-President, Mr. J.B. Christie, the grounds' name was changed to its current title, Christie Park, in his honour. Those early seasons proved difficult and it was not until 1924-25 that the club began to enjoy some success, claiming the league title for the first time; this was later followed by success in the Lancashire Junior Cup (now the ATS Trophy) beating old rivals Chorley after two replays, and amazingly in front of over 30,000 spectators.

Wrexham

Wrexham Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Pêl-droed Wrecsam, nicknamed The Red Dragons, or more traditionally, The Robins) are a football team based in Wrexham, north-east Wales. Founded in 1872 they are one of the oldest surviving football clubs in the UK, and the oldest professional club in Wales.

They have been regular winners of the Welsh Cup and FAW Premier Cup and in the 1990-91 European Cup Winners Cup campaign were knocked out by Manchester United who went on to win the trophy.

The 1992/93 season saw Wrexham manager Brian Flynn Make a shrewd signing when he enlisted the services of Gary Bennett, he soon settled and helped Wrexham into the promotion race. Wrexham's season came to a head on 27 April 1993 when with two games left they travelled to Northampton requiring a win to gain promotion. The game ended 2-0 to Wrexham and the 4,500 "Reds" there were jubilant.

The 1994/95 season would see Wrexham achieve success in the FA Cup, Having beaten Stockport County and Rotherham United, they faced Premier League Ipswich Town at the Racecourse, with Wrexham running out 2-1 winners thanks to Gary Bennett and Kieron Durkin. In the next round, Wrexham were drawn away to Manchester United and despite taking the lead at Old Trafford, United went on to win 5-2. The 1995/96 season saw Wrexham in European action again, this time in Romania against Petrolul Ploiesti, the home leg ended in a 0-0 draw and in the return leg the Romanians scored the only goal of the match.

The 1996/97 season saw Wrexham set off on another amazing cup run, following wins at Colwyn Bay and Scunthorpe United, they were drawn to play West Ham United at home, the result ended in a 1-1 draw on a snow-covered pitch, the replay at upton park ended in a shock Wrexham win as Kevin Russell scored in the dying minutes to send Wrexham in to round 4. After they beat Peterborough united and Birmingham City, they played Chesterfield in a Division 2 FA Cup Quarter final, Wrexham lost narrowly 1-0. Wrexham's new training ground was officially opened in June 1997 at a cost of £700,000. The 1999/2000 season saw Wrexham again beat a top flight team in the FA Cup in the shape of Middlesbrough, 2-1. Wrexham went on to win the FAW Premier Cup in May 2001.

Mansfield

Mansfield Town Football Club is an English football club who currently play in League Two of the Football League.

Based in the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the club are nicknamed "The Stags". They play in their traditional colours of amber and blue. The team's current manager is Bill Dearden, with former Stags hero Paul Holland as his assistant. Dearden took over on 28 December 2006 following Peter Shirtliff's dismissal.

The club is fierce rivals with neighbouring Chesterfield. The rivalry between the two is considered by some to be amongst the fiercest in the lower leagues. Stags also enjoy rivalries with Notts County, Lincoln City and Doncaster Rovers. The fans of the club are also considered the most pessimistic in the Football League.

The team's home ground is Field Mill, which holds 10,000 seated spectators. In 1995 the club considered building a new stadium in the town, but opted to re-develop their existing ground instead. The re-developed ground consists of three new stands, whilst an old, now condemned wooden stand completes the ground on the Bishop Street (East) side of the ground where there are plans to build an high-tech new one for TV programmes and cameras.