Date: Tuesday 22nd September 2020
Venue: Vesty Road, Bootle, Liverpool, Merseyside, L30
Kick Off: 7.45pm
Competition: Emirates FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
Highlights: Highwaymen TV
The FA Cup journey for the Highwaymen begins on Tuesday evening as Town travel to Liverpool to face City of Liverpool FC.
History
The first meeting that led to the formation of the club was proposed in October 2014 by Paul Manning and present at that first meeting, were Peter Furmedge, Kevin Morland and Nicky Allt. A number of names such as “Liverpool City FC” and “Merseyside FC” were considered before the club was officially established in May 2015 as “City of Liverpool FC”. The club chose to play in the colour purple due to it being the civic colour of the city and that the fact that the city’s two big Premier League clubs Everton F.C. wear blue and Liverpool F.C. wear red, blue and red makes purple.
Due to work commitments and other issues Allt and Morland had left the venture by December 2014 and in February 2015, Stuart Fitzgerald joined the remaining 3 committee members.
The club held an open public meeting in September 2015 by which time Martin Jones had left the organisation, at which the community voted to form the club as a CBS (a Community Benefit Society) on socialist principles, and the club then moved forward to making an application to join The North West Counties League for season 2016–17, in December 2015. In February 2016 the club held its first member’s meeting at Jack Jones House in Liverpool City Centre.
Simon Burton, formerly of Runcorn Town, was appointed as the first manager of the club in March 2016. The club applied to join the North West Counties Football League in early 2016 but their application was rejected by the FA in May and they were instead placed in the Liverpool County Premier League. They chose to take up their option to appeal against the decision, particularly in light of the league being left with a vacancy following the resignation of Northwich Manchester Villa, and attended an appeal hearing at Wembley Stadium on 8 June 2016, attended by the two remaining directors, Paul Manning and Peter Furmedge, as Stuart Fitzgerald had left the board in April 2016. The appeal was successful, allowing the club to join the First Division of the North West Counties Football League for the 2016–17 season.
Last Game
City of Liverpool suffered defeat on the opening day of the season as they went down 4-2 at home to Marske United. The visitors took the lead through Adam Boyes before the lead was doubled through Matty Tymon. Tymon grabbed his second before the half hour mark to have Marske in complete control. The Purps got one back from the spot with Nathan Burke converting. Jack Hazlehurst made it 3-2 with a little over 5 minutes remaining of the 90 but Tymon completed his hat trick a minute later.
Morpeth began their campaign with a disappointing 1-1 draw with Grantham Town at Craik Park. Ryan Holland was given his marching orders for the Gingerbreads on 34 minutes for a deliberate handball that was preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity. Morpeth took the lead only 5 minutes later with Andrew Johnson heading home. The visitors levelled through Ashley Worsfold who capitalised on a lapse in defence.
