History
Vauxhall Motors F.C. was founded in 1963, shortly after the opening of the new Vauxhall Motors Car Plant in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Early in its history, it played in the Ellesmere Port League and the Wirral Combination, but it soon grew too strong for those leagues. By 1970, the club had achieved several promotions and played on the company-owned Hooton Park. By 1987 however, it had opened its own ground, Rivacre Park, where the club plays today. The opening of the new ground was especially important as then England manager Bobby Robson brought a number of former international stars for the opening game.
On the pitch, the club also started finding some success, winning its first West Cheshire League championship in the 1985–86 season. Soon after, they reached their first Cheshire Amateur Cup and triumphed in the Wirral Senior Cup. These accomplishments did not go unnoticed, as the club successfully applied to join the North West Counties League for 1987–88. They easily won the league's Second Division in their second season at that level, and finished fourth in the First Division in 1989–90. Despite expectations to challenge for the league title the next season, the team only finished fifth, but won the North West Counties League Cup in the process, defeating Darwen 2–0.
Soon after its fifth place finish, the board took the decision to move back down to the West Cheshire League where the club finished in third place in the two following seasons. However, in 1994–95, the club won both divisions of the league — only the third time any club had achieved that in the 103-year history of the league. Soon after, they were accepted back into the North West Counties League. Just as before, they easily won the Second Division of the NWCL, but did not have the best of seasons in Division One, although they did reach the semi-final of the Cheshire Senior Cup. It continued to play in Division One, and reached the final of the NWCL Cup, losing to Kidsgrove Athletic in a closely contested match.
The 1998–99 season was the team's best by far to that point, reaching the fifth round of the FA Vase and earning its best ever league position in third place, and won the NWCL Cup. However, the next season was even better, with the team reaching the semi-finals of the FA Vase and winning the NWCL title, thus earning a spot in Division One of the Northern Premier League. The reserves also enjoyed a successful season, winning a number of smaller trophies.
The club enjoyed considerable success in the Northern Premier League as well, earning promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division in their first season, and finishing in second place in the league. The team continued to play well, with its high point coming when they defeated Queens Park Rangers in their first appearance in the FA Cup first round, before losing in the next round in a televised match against Macclesfield Town. The season after, the club hired manager Owen Brown and they earned promotion to Conference North.
The club finished twenty-first in the 2007–08 season, and were due to be relegated but after Nuneaton Borough's liquidation and the Conference's decision to expel Boston United, the club were reprieved. In the 2009–10 season, the club finished twentieth. However due to the earlier resignation of Farsley Celtic and the subsequent relegation of Northwich Victoria due to financial troubles, Vauxhall Motors was again given a reprieve from relegation.
In the 2010–11 season, they again qualified for the first round proper of the FA Cup, but were unable to repeat the success of eight years previously, although Josh Wilson scored in the 38th minute, his header was disallowed, drawing 0–0 against Hartlepool United before going on to lose 1–0 in the replay. On 26 May 2011 it was announced that, due to a promotion at work, Carl Macauley was stepping down from his role as manager and that his assistant Anthony Wright would be taking over the reins with former Notts County, Peterborough United, Burscough and Vauxhall Motors striker Gary Martindale as his number two. However results didn't go as hoped despite assembling one of the strongest squads the club had seen, resulting in Carl Macauley making a shock return to the Rivacre Park hotseat in November 2011 with Anthony Wright reverting to Assistant Manager and Gary Martindale to First Team Coach.
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