Historical Football Kits

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Salford City

Formed 1940

Promoted to League Two 2019

Kit History

Background

The club was formed in 1940 as Salford Central Mission, named after an iconic landmark that was demolished in 2010 as part of the Salford Quays redevelopment. The enormous building was not only an active, non-conformist church, but also hosted an orchestra, junior rugby league team, a drama society and a Boys' Brigade.

In 1947 the club seems to have severed its relationship with the mission and became Salford Central FC. For the next 16 years they played in various minor local leagues before stepping up to the Manchester League in 1963. Now known as Salford Amateurs, the "Ammies," the team had a very successful spell in the '70s, winning the Lancashire Amateur Cup in 1973, 1975 and 1977 and the Manchester Premier Cup in 1978 and 1979.

According to the unofficial redammies.club, the lion rampant was chosen as the club badge at some stage and this appeared on the team shirts in 1963.

In 1980 the club merged with Anson Villa who had finished bottom of the Cheshire County League Second Division and became Salford FC. The move up to regional competition was attractive but the dilapidated state of Salford's ground, Moor Lane, was a barrier that had to be overcome first. The pitch was in very poor condition while their main stand was derelict. Thanks to the efforts of the players and committee Moor Lane was brought up to standard and Salford were accepted into the Cheshire County League in 1980. Two years later this competition merged with the Lancashire Combination to form the regional North West Counties League (NWCL) as part of the process of forming a non-league pyramid that would ultimately provide a pathway for successful clubs to get into the Football League. A new crest was worn by the team in 1984-85 (at least) but a different version appeared on match programmes in 1989.

Salford remained in the lower levels of the NWCL until the expansion of the Northern Premier League led to restructuring from three to two divisions after which they won promotion to the NWCL First Division. In 1989 floodlights were installed at Moor Lane and the club took the more ambitious title of Salford City. The old crest continued to appear on match programmes in 1989-90 but was then modified by the simple expedient of cropping out the surrounding lettering.

After a largely undistinguished career in the North West Counties League, Salford City were promoted to Division One North of the Northern Premier League in 2008, the eighth tier of the English pyramid, where they languished for the next seven seasons.

The shirts worn 2006-2010 bore a lion rampant crest along with the club's name. This was replaced in 2010 with a more ambitious design that included the club's traditional nickname.

A fire at Moor Lane in 2009 destroyed much of the club's records and memorabilia, making it very difficult to compile an historical record.

In March 2014 it was announced that a consortium of former Manchester United players known as the Class of '92, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Gary and Phil Neville were planning to take over the club in conjunction with Peter Lim, the owner of Valencia CF, who would be the majority shareholder. The former players said they wanted to put something back into the game in an area where they had themselves learned their trade. They also announced an ambitious plan to take the club into the second tier (The Championship) within 15 years. As one might expect, the new owners ditched the tangerine and black colours in favour of the red and white of Manchester United (including black as an accent colour) and a new, very modern crest was introduced. Despite all these changes, supporters cling to the traditional nickname for their team, The Ammies.

Success came immediately: Salford finished as Champions of the NPL Division North and a year later they were promoted to the National League North. In 2015-16 Salford beat League Two side Notts County in the FA Cup 1st Round and reached the play-off semi-final. After turning fully professional in 2017, Salford won the title in April 2018 and were promoted to the National League.

In January 2019 David Beckham joined the Class of '92 after purchasing a 10% share of the club from majority shareholder, Peter Lim. In May, Salford City beat AFC Fylde in the play-off final and were promoted to League Two.

In March 2021, Salford beat Portsmouth on penalties in the final of the Papa John's Trophy at Wembley to claim their first senior trophy. The match had been postponed from the previous April due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They had to hand the trophy back immediately as Tranmere Rovers and Sunderland were due to meet in the 2021 final just 24 hours later.

Sources

• (a) Salford City FC
• (b) Connecting Industry
• (c) Football Trade Directory
• (d) @SalfordCityFC
• (e) Old Football Shirts
• (f) Salford Star
• (g) Salford Star
• (h) Andy Barker Photography
• (i) Salford Star
• (j) Football Programmes.net
• (k) Salford Star
• (l) Frank McCauley
• (m) Ralph Pomeroy
• (n) YouTube submitted by Ralph Pomeroy
• (o) Mark Padden
• (p) NW Counties League and other non-league handbooks submitted by Michael Chatwin.
• (q) Non-league handbooks submitted by Michael Gluck.
• (r) Weare Binary
• (s) Football Grounds in Focus submitted by Ralph Pomeroy

Crest are the property of Salford City FC. Early crest information from redammies.club Photograph courtesy of the Salford City Reporter.