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Nuneaton Borough FC was formed in 1937
after the old club, Nuneaton Town, folded. After several
successful seasons in the Birmingham League, the club
moved up a level and joined the Southern League in 1958,
and then went on to be founder members of the Premier
Division a year later.
The
club reached the Third Round of the FA Cup in 1967, where
a record crowd of 22,114 watched a 1-1 draw with Rotherham,
who went on to win the replay 1-0. In 1979 Nuneaton Borough
joined the Alliance League and, after consecutive seasons
of relegation then promotion, they finished in second
place two seasons in a row in 1984 and 1985. However,
the club were relegated to the Southern League in 1987
because of off the pitch problems, despite finishing in
mid-table.
After
recovering from the threat of closure in 1990, Nuneaton
Borough went through several promotions and relegations
until, in 1996, they won both the Midland Division and
the Southern League Cup. The best was yet to come, when,
in the 1998/99 season, the club marched to the Dr Martens
Premier Division Championship, finishing a full 23 points
in front of second placed Boston United. In the seasons
that followed, the Boro consolidated their position in
the Nationwide Conference, slightly improving and progressing
each time, with finishes of 15th, 13th and tenth respectively.
However,
disaster struck in the 2002/03 season as Boro were relegated
on the last day of the season after having been out of
the drop zone for the entire campaign. Steve Burr's men
had a poor run in and a 2-0 defeat against Farnborough
on the final day condemned Nuneaton to the Dr Martens
League. Burr resigned in may, making way for Alan Lewer.
The
club never really threatened an immediate return to the
Nationwide Conference as they were well of the pace of
leaders Weymouth and Crawley. However, their fourth place
finished was enough to secure entry to the new Conference
North. |
