NWCFL Stats

Mon 30th June 2025 | Statistics | By Ben Wilkinson

The North West Counties Football League, formed by the merger of the Lancashire Combination and the Cheshire County League, has had 41 completed seasons since its inception in 1982. 161 different clubs have completed* a league season in the interim, including current EFL sides Accrington Stanley (members 1982-1987), Fleetwood Town (1997-2005) and Salford City (1982-2008). All in all, there have been 1817 completed* campaigns and here we take a look at some of the most notable of the lot...

*not including the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons which were curtailed and then declared null and void by The FA.

Number of Wins

The Newcastle Town season of 2009/10 will feature regularly in these 'top tables', starting with the highest number of wins chalked up in a single season. 'The Castle', managed by Greg Clowes, took all three points away from 37 of their 42 league games on their way to the Premier Division title, including winning their first 27 games! One win behind them is FC United of Manchester's successful Division One (now the Prem) campaign of 2006/07, with Cammell Laird 1907's championship a year earlier a win further back.

Next on the list is New Mills and their 2008/09 season, which is notable as although they won 34 of their 42 games, they were pipped to the post on goal difference by AFC Fylde and missed out on promotion! The 'Coasters' won one fewer match but drew three more and had a goal difference of +87 compared to the 'Millers' +59. 

Seven teams racked up 33 wins in one season - including two this year! Both Bury and Lower Breck picked up 99 points from wins alone in their enthralling title race, culminating in Bury's automatic promotion, while Lower Breck had to settle for the play-offs, which they won following wins over West Didsbury & Chorlton and then Padiham.

Highest Win Percentages

As the number of games played by each club in a completed NWCFL season ranges from 24 to 46, it is perhaps fairer to use the percentage of games won rather than just the raw number. Newcastle Town's 2009/10 season also takes the crown on this metric as they won over 88% of their league games on their way to the Premier Division title that year. Second on the list is Radcliffe in the inaugural Division Two season way back in 1982/93 as they took maximum points from 33 of their 38 games, drawing four and losing just one.

The most recent entries into the top 10 both came in the 2014/15 season; Division One champions Atherton Collieries won 86.11% of their games while champions of the Premier Division, Glossop North End, were victorious 82.5% of the time.

In addition to those in the table below, Vauxhall Motors won 27 of their 31 league fixtures (87.10%) in the First Division South in 2019/20 prior to the pandemic shutdown and The FA declaring the season to be null and void at this level. The NWCFL wish to still recognise the results that clubs achieved during this season.

Highest Number of Points

When adjusting all seasons to 3 points for a win, the 100 point barrier has been breached 18 times. Again Newcastle Town top the table with a staggering 114 points and again this is a record unlikely to be beaten - in any division with fewer than 20 clubs it's a mathematical impossibility! Radcliffe's Division Two championship in the very first NWCFL season would have earned 103 points under the 'new' system while Atherton LR were the first to officially hit triple figures with their 1992/93 campaign.

Lower Breck became the unfortunate holders of the 'highest points tally to not win a division' label with their 106 point haul this season, supplanting New Mills' previously mentioned effort from 2008/09.

Fewest Number of Defeats

No team has ever gone a full season unbeaten in the history of the NWCFL - a testament to the competitiveness of the League. Just three clubs have lost just one match in a season, and only one of those was in the past 35 years! Bury, playing as Bury AFC, suffered just one reverse on their way to the Division One North title in 2021/22 - a 2-0 defeat away at AFC Blackpool.

Radcliffe's 1982/83 season again features here (a 2-1 defeat away at Caenarfon Town the one blot of that campaign) and Vauxhall Motors' Division Two title-winning season of 1988/89 while they were known as Vauxhall GM rounds out the trio - individual results for this season are not currently on record.

Play-offs

The standard 4-team play-off format was first introduced into Division One in the 2014/15 season; Darwen becoming the first club to successfully navigate them when they beat Hanley Town 5-3 at the Anchor Ground. There were three further seasons with the same format before a three-year absence, the system returning to what was now the First Divisions North and South in 2022/23 and then the Premier Division in the following season.

All in all, there have been 14 intra-division play-off tournaments: four in each of Division One, First Division North and First Division South and two in the Premier Division. The highest-ranked club has won the play-offs on 6 occasions while the 2nd highest and lowest-ranked clubs have both won three times and the 3rd highest on just one occasion.

The Premier Division had an inter-step play-off with a Step 4 club for two seasons immediately prior to adopting the current system; the NWCFL club winning on both occasions. Skelmersdale United travelled to Cinderford Town and won 5-1 before Avro visited Lincoln United and secured a 2-1 victory to earn promotion.

Miscellaneous

We end this stat pack with some miscellaneous tidbits that may be interesting... just two clubs have been crowned divisional champions with fewer than 2 points per game (adjusting all seasons to 3 points for a win): Clitheroe in 1985/86 and Fleetwood Town in 1998/99 - a far cry from some of the mammoth totals needed to reach the summit in recent years!

Ignoring any demotions & voluntary relegations etc., just one club across all divisions has been relegated with a points per game average of over 1 - Bootle finished bottom (18/18) of Division One in 1991/92, accruing 35 points from 34 games but finishing below Bradford (Park Avenue) on goal difference and suffering relegation to Divison Two. They would go on to be promoted back to the NWCFL top flight at the first attempt.

A total of 34 different clubs have been crowned champions of the top NWCFL division, seven of them twice, but no club is yet to claim the hat-trick. Vauxhall Motors were the latest to win their second title when they topped the 2022/23 season while Atherton LR are the only club to have won two successive titles (in 1992/93 and 1993/94). In the era of automatic promotion to the NPL, this is a feat unlikely to be repeated; the last club to win the top division and be denied promotion was Kidsgrove Athletic in 1998.

Division name history:

1982/83 to 2007/08: Div 1, Div 2 & Div 3 (until 1987/88)

2008/09 to 2017/18: Prem and Div One

2018/19 onwards: Prem, 1DN and 1DS