History

The Bloods realised their dream by reaching the top tier of the non-league pyramid after winning the Nationwide North last season at the 3rd attempt by five points and will play in the newly named Blue Square Premier for the 2007/2008 season.

Droylsden were originally formed at the invitation of Joseph Cropper, Landlord of the Butchers Arms, to play behind the pub. After twenty years of friendliest and local leagues, disbandment, reformations and changes of strip, the club emerged from the First World War the sole survivors amongst the village teams, and as members of the Manchester League. The club also adopted their now traditional colours of red and white, the inspiration for the almost unique nickname of 'The Bloods'.

Two games in the 1921 Manchester Junior Cup Final against Hyde United of the newly formed Cheshire League attracted over 15,00 people to see Hyde prevail but the Bloods had their revenge two years later, taking the Cup from their local rivals.

The thirties was the era of Droylsden's record goal scorer, Ernest 'Gilly' Gillibrand, scorer of 275 goals in just four seasons. Gilly's goals saw Droylsden to the Manchester League Championship in 1931 and again in 1933, and in the latter season he aided Droylsden to the Third Qualifying Round in their first season in the FA Cup. That benchmark would take over 40 years to pass!

In 1936, the club successfully applied to join the Lancashire Combination and, a season later, became a nursery club to Manchester City. City's 'A' team played at the Butchers Arms and their surplus players were available to Droylsden, although the Bloods were disqualified from the FA Cup.

[1] [2] [3] [4]




Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid CSS