Croston Sports - Croston Sports Club

Croston Sports FC

Croston Sports Club

Westhead Road

Croston

Lancashire 

PR26 9RR

Croston Sports Club Website

Twitter

Ground Number: 1463
Sunday 24th August 2025
Croston Sports 0-0 Lytham Town
West Lancashire D1

CROSTON SPORTS FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

Croston Sports FC were established in 1902 and has played in various leagues over the years. They moved to the newly established Croston Sports Club in 1960 when a facility was built to cater for both cricket and football. They later joined the Mid Lancashire League, winning Division 4 in 1993 and Division 2 East the following year. Although their reserve team remained in the league, winning Division 1 in 2006, they joined the West Lancashire League in 2004. In 2006, they finished as runners-up to Trimpell in Division 2. They spent five seasons in Division 1, finishing 8th in 2007, before being relegated in 2011. In 2019, they went back up as runners-up to Horwich St Mary's Victoria. Croston Sports have remained in Division 1 ever since, finishing a best-ever 7th in 2023

The village of Croston is located near Chorley and has a population of just under 3,000. Croston was founded in the 7th century when St Aidan arrived at the riverside settlements. In the absence of a church, a cross was erected as a place of worship. The name is derived from the two Old English words 'cross' and 'tūn' (town/homestead/village) and is unique to the village. Croston railway station serves the village and is on the Ormskirk Branch Line, originally built & opened by the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway (later taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway) in 1849. The rail link was reduced to single-line working in 1970. Andrew Sprake, the bassist from the band Failsafe, who featured in an episode of The Inbetweeners, also studied here at Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy. The DJ Dave Dawson also studied here. Dave makes the Mind the Gap announcements on the Docklands Light Railway. Mark Bonner, a midfielder for Blackpool, Cardiff City, Hull City & Oldham Athletic, also studied here.

MY VISIT

From our game at Ulverston, it was a 20-minute drive to our hotel in Rampside. It was a lovely place, but on reflection, I wish I'd booked in at the Wetherspoons. However, I didn't know that the Barrow one was a hotel, so that aim will have to wait for a while longer. We took our stuff up to the room and both peckish, went downstairs for food. My enchiladas were decent and very filling. After that, we went back upstairs, and it took two hours or so to get my blogs up whilst we watched football highlights. I went to sleep around 11.30, having had a light night's drinking compared to the previous two nights. I woke up around 6 and got up, showered and got on with this and other blogs.

There was plenty of time to kill before it came time to leave at 7.40. It was only ten minutes to the Furness Railway Wetherspoons in Barrow, with us parking up nearby. It was the usual Breakfast Muffin deal, a quid more than yesterday but still great. The service was so efficient, I had my drink and food before Colin had even decided what to have. It was then off to Tesco for petrol; annoyingly, we were about 30 miles short of filling up near our destination, where it was a few pence cheaper. Colin slept the whole way, and we arrived at 10.25. Parking was very well organised and just down the road from the ground. The main bar was doing a roaring trade with breakfasts, whilst the football pitch was at the back with a more limited range of drinks and hotpot.

 

Croston Sports were in 6th place, having won three, drawn two and lost one of their games so far. On Tuesday, they had followed up on an 8-0 win at Crooklands Casuals with a 2-2 draw at Freckleton. Lytham Town were 8th, having won three and lost two of their games. In their last game, they lost 3-0 at Turton. Lytham were well on top in the opening minutes and they had the ball in the net only for it to be ruled out for a handball. They then hit the bar twice in a minute around the 25th. On a rare Croston attack, the Lytham keeper pulled off a great save to deny a goal. The second half started with Croston on top, and the Lytham keeper tipping a shot over his bar to deny them. There was a dull period in the second half, and then Lytham had a good spell. Croston had the ball in the net, but it was ruled out for a foul. It ended 0-0, but it was a decent game, just with a dead 30 minutes between 50 and 80 minutes.

 

THE GROUND

CROSTON SPORTS CLUB is a nice venue with a fully railed pitch and a bit of hard standing. There is also food and drink pitch side. The other side of an attractive cricket field is a bar with an excellent menu, plus a range of drinks including Somersby Cider and real ales. Parking for my visit was in an adjacent field.