Wythenshawe Town

Two clubs in the same corner of south Manchester share a postcode, a name and a claim on the local Saturday crowd. Wythenshawe Town and Wythenshawe FC, the latter formerly Wythenshawe Amateurs, meet in what is called the Wythenshawe derby. On Boxing Day 2023 it drew 1,450 spectators to a ground.

Town did not begin in Wythenshawe. They started in 1946 as North Withington Amateur Football Club and played at Hough End Field in Withington. In June 1974 they moved to Ericstan Park on Timpson Road, in the Baguley area of Wythenshawe, and the name followed later, in the 1980s. The badge carries a fox and a cockerel for the founders, Eric Renard and Stan Hahn.

The amateur leagues were where the club won its early trophies. It took the Lancashire and Cheshire Amateur League Division One five times between 1966 and 1971, then the Manchester League titles in the mid-1970s. It won Cheshire League Division Two in 2015 and Division One in 2016.

The 2023–24 season carried them furthest. Town finished second in the North West Counties Football League Premier Division, won the promotion play-offs and went up to the Northern Premier League Division One West. This season they play in the Midland League Premier Division.

A veterans side managed by Stephen Ireland, the former Manchester City and Republic of Ireland midfielder, has drawn attention of its own by fielding ex-professionals such as Joleon Lescott, Emile Heskey and Antonio Valencia.