Marine

The fixture with Southport carries a name of its own, the Sefton derby. Huyton FC provide the other local grudge.

The club traces back to 1894, when a group of businessmen and former college students settled its name over a meeting at the Marine Hotel on the Waterloo seafront. They moved to Rossett Park in 1903 and have stayed since, the ground now carrying the sponsored name Marine Travel Arena. Amateur status went in 1974, and five years later came promotion into the Northern Premier League, where Marine held a place for 40 consecutive seasons until relegation finally arrived in 2018-19. Roly Howard managed the side for 33 of those years, from 1972 to 2005, a tenure the Guinness Book of Records once listed as the longest of any manager in post-war English football.

In the 2020-21 FA Cup third round, Marine hosted Tottenham Hotspur behind closed doors under pandemic restrictions; the club sold virtual tickets instead and raised more than £300,000 from a tie it lost on the pitch. Nearly ninety years earlier, in 1931-32, Marine had reached the FA Amateur Cup final and were beaten 7-1 by Dulwich Hamlet in front of 22,000 spectators.

Jason McAteer came through at Marine before Bolton Wanderers signed him in 1992, and he went on to win 52 caps for the Republic of Ireland; David Raven, who already held a Champions League winner's medal from his time at Liverpool, played out part of his career here between 2020 and 2021.

Promotion back to the National League North arrived in 2024 through the play-offs.