At the end of the 1974/75 season, Prescot Town Football Club was voted out of the Lancashire Combination after finishing next to bottom and even though they were 10 points ahead of bottom side, Ashton Town.
It was the culmination of a decade through which the club had struggled heroically against mounting debts and shrinking gates. For one game in their last season they attracted just 25 faithful fans through the turnstile and the iconic stand had fallen into disuse.
In June 1975, Prescot Town was admitted into the first division of the Mid-Cheshire League, where they would come up against sides such as Linotype, ERF, Alsager Technical College and Moulton.
During the close season the larger than life character, George Glover, took over from Mick Maleedy as Manager the club.
Glover had been an apprentice at Liverpool before playing for Horwich R.M.I., Altrincham, and Prescot Cables in the early 1960s, either side of spell at Burscough. He had been a useful utility forward. After hanging up his boots, he had built up his business interests to include nightclubs in Ashton in Makerfield and Orrell, three discount stores and a furniture manufacturing company.
The flamboyant Glover was determined to get his old club back on the non-League map and breezed into Hope Street with big ambitions. He believed that the way to success for a struggling non-league club was to persuade a big-name personality to sign for you, thus drawing in the crowds and bringing in much-needed cash.
Glover’s first act was to sign the former Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool star, Tony Hateley from Bromsgrove FC. Centre-forward, Hateley, was an immediate success and scored four goals in his first six matches for Prescot Town. His presence certainly gave a boost to attendances early in the season, with the club secretary Jimmy Beesley saying that gate receipts from the first two home games had been more than the whole of the previous season. From an average attendance of under 50 in their last season in the Lancashire Combination, the average for the early Mid Cheshire League games was nearly 10 times that figure!
In September 1975, a crowd of over 1,000 turned up for the FA Cup First Qualifying Round match against the Cheshire League leaders, Stalybridge Celtic - something that hadn't happened at Hope Street for about 20 years. The big attraction was the sight of two former Liverpool stalwarts, Tony Hateley and Ron Yeats, then playing for Stalybridge, in opposition. The game was drawn one-all, but Town won the replay at Bower Fold, only to bow out of the competition in the next round.
Just a few weeks into the season, Glover revealed ambitious plans and illustrations to develop the Prescot Town club into a leisure centre, including squash and badminton courts, a multi-games room and a restaurant from where supporters would be able to watch the game in comfort. New dressing rooms and floodlights would also be installed. The club had approached the council with the aim of purchasing the club's ground from the Council. Glover said his immediate aim was to build gates up to 3.000 - "bigger than Wigan Athletic. If we are successful, we can get into the Football League”, he said enthusiastically. “The facilities at the ground are fantastic, so the potential is really great. It would be for the people of Prescot – a social centre that is needed in the town”.
With things going well, Glover next revealed that he had set his sights higher and he had reportedly offered George Best £500 per game to turn out for the Mid-Cheshire League club. But the former Manchester United genius decided to take his talents elsewhere as he crossed the Atlantic to feature for the Los Angeles Aztecs in the NASL!
Glover also had plans to invite former Evertonians, Johnny Morrissey and Derek Temple to join the Hope Street fold. “I have no doubt that I can really put the club on the map by the end of the season”.
Had it happened, it is safe to safe that times at Hope Street would’ve been “interesting”!
Unfortunately, results in the new league were patchy and the club could only finish in 7th position, and the early surge of support quickly fell away. However, there was a great run in the F.A. Vase with Town reaching the last 16 of the competition, only to suffer defeat at the Lincolnshire side, Stamford, by three goals to one. The Daniels, as Stamford are nicknamed, went on to lose to Billericay Town in the final at Wembley.
After just one season at Hope Street, Tony Hateley moved on to Barrow, and Glover came up with a plan to replace him.
During the summer of 1976, the former Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City and Derby County player, Francis Lee, announced his retirement from football. Glover attempted to lure him back to the game with an offer of £200 per match, after tax, to play for Prescot Town. Glover said, “He would be worth every penny, and we could even go a little higher if it is necessary. The club may be small now, but we’re ambitious. We have the largest stand in non-league football, seating 1,000 people, and Francis could help fill it.” Lee declined, preferring to concentrate on building up his toilet roll manufacturing business!
Nonetheless, Town performed very well on their second season in the Mid-Cheshire League and romped to the 1976/77 title by 8 points, losing just 2 league games and scoring 99 goals. The club also reached the 3rd round of the F.A. Vase and the semi-final of the Mid-Cheshire League Cup.
George Glover parted ways with Prescot Town at the end of the 1976/77 season, following news of a projected buy-out of the club by a group of directors of Kirkby Town Football Club.
However, he would return to the club, again, in 1990, still with big plans for it’s development!
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