Loughborough

Full name	Loughborough Athletic and Football Club
Founded	1886
Dissolved	1900
Ground	Athletic Ground,Loughborough
League	Football League Second Division
1899–1900	18th (out of 18)
Home colours

Loughborough Athletic and Football Club were anEnglishfootball club based inLoughborough,Leicestershire, that played inthe Football League at the end of the 19th century.

The club started life asLoughborough Football Club in 1886 from a merger of Victoria and Athletic, the two senior sides in the town, using the latter's ground then called Bromhead or Hubbard Cricket Ground. November 1887 saw merger with the local athletics club to formLoughborough Athletic and Football Club. The club was also known as Loughborough Town.^[1]

In 1891 the club joined theMidland League. After winning the league title in1894–95, Loughborough were elected to theFootball League Second Division afterMillwall Athletic turned down an invitation to join.^[2]

The club struggled in the Second Division, never finishing higher than 12th (out of 16). In 1900 the club finished bottom of the League, conceding 100 goals in 34 games, winning only a single game and collecting only 8 points of a possible 68, arguably the worst record in the history of the League—onlyDoncaster Rovers have an equally low points record, set in1904–05, but they had a somewhat bettergoal average. This season saw their record League defeat, 12–0 atWoolwich Arsenal; due to financial constraints the team consisted of four professionals and seven amateurs and their travelling expenses were paid for by Arsenal.

After failing to gain re-election to the League in 1900, the club applied for acceptance back into the Midland League, but failed to turn up for the fixtures meeting on 9 June. On 29 June a meeting was held when it was decided that the club was defunct.

Several clubs have since represented the town of Loughborough:

• Loughborough Corinthians emergedc. 1903 and became founder members of the Leicestershire League, which they won twice before the outbreak ofWorld War I. In 1925, after some good FA Cup runs, the team stepped up to theMidland League, where they played until their demise in 1933.
• Loughborough United were formedc. 1960 and were elected to Midland League in 1961. The 1960s were a good time for the club, as they were league champions in 1963 and twice reached the 1st round proper of the FA Cup. However, the success was short-lived, and after some difficult seasons they left the league in 1973 after finishing bottom for the second successive season.
• A second Loughborough FC came into existence in 1988, whenLoughborough J.O.L. (formerly Thorpe Acre Hallam) changed their name to Loughborough FC. The club competed in theCentral Midlands League, but left and apparently folded in 1990.
• A third Loughborough FC appeared whenLoughborough Athletic dropped the "Athletic" suffix in 2001. The club were members of theMidland Football Combination, but resigned from the league in the summer of 2006, stepping down to theNorth Leicestershire Football League, at level 13 of theEnglish football league system.
• Loughborough Dynamo were founded in 1955 and were promoted to the Northern Premier League Division One South, in 2008, before eventually dropping back down to Division One of the Leicestershire Senior League.

• Loughborough F.C. players

Cited sources

Bibliography

• Twydell, Dave (1992).Rejected F.C. Volume 1.Harefield: Yore Publications.ISBN 1-874427-00-3.
• Loughborough at theFootball Club History Database
• Original Loughborough Playing Strip

• Every match result and League table while in the Football League

• Defunct football clubs in England
• Association football clubs established in 1886
• Association football clubs disestablished in 1900
• English Football League clubs
• Defunct football clubs in Leicestershire
• 1886 establishments in England
• Midland Football League (1889)
• 1900 disestablishments in England
• Sport in Loughborough
• United League (football)

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2021