Take a trip back to 1975, when there was a rare outbreak of optimism at one of rugby league’s most legendary strugglers.
HOPE springs eternal, as the saying goes – and it seems particularly applicable when it comes to rugby league.
A whole collection of clubs, from founder members Broughton (later Belle Vue) Rangers to this season’s casualties Cornwall, have disappeared down the years.
It’s always sad when that happens, but perhaps we should be impressed that so many survived, often against all the odds, for so long.
There can hardly be a better example of that than the ultra-resilient nomadic professional outfit who started out as Wigan Highfield in 1922 and finally folded as Prescot Panthers in 1997, having also been London Highfield, Liverpool Stanley, Liverpool City, Huyton, Runcorn Highfield and plain Highfield, by then playing in St Helens (at a non-league football ground, not Knowsley Road).
Turn back the clock 50 years, and they were about to start an eighth season as Huyton.
And there was real optimism about building on their most successful campaign under that name, adopted in 1968, and best since 1936-37, when in their third season as Liverpool Stanley, and in the days of one single division, they made the then top-four Championship Play-Off for the second season in succession.
In those pre-War days, despite a failed attempt 30 years earlier, there were genuine hopes rugby league could be firmly established in Liverpool.
However just as Wigan Highfield had struggled in the face of competition from that town’s senior 13-a-side club, Liverpool, either as Stanley (after the greyhound track where they played) or City (from 1951 when they moved to their own ground at Knotty Ash on the eastern outskirts) were unable to make any lasting impression on a sporting landscape dominated by two major football teams.
With the lease on Knotty Ash running out and the owners set on using the land for other purposes, the club had to move, and with the help of a Rugby Football League loan and support from Huyton-with-Roby Council, settled on a new venue Alt Park in the town three miles away.
Huyton was known best as the constituency of Labour Party politician Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister from from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976, and with its population enlarged by those leaving inner-city Liverpool, it was seen as a promising location.
However the move was far from easy, because with the new ground next to the river from which it took its name, there were construction issues, delaying its completion.
That meant that for the bulk of the key season of 1968-69, when Huyton had wanted to make an impression in new surroundings, they had to play elsewhere, mainly nine miles away at Widnes, where there were two attendances of less than 100.
There were obvious effects on the club’s finances, and when they did start playing at Alt Park, gates were less than they had hoped for (often between 300 and 400) while there were constant problems with anti-social behaviour, which did nothing to encourage new supporters.
The switch to two divisions in 1973 didn’t help, because with Huyton inevitably in the Second, they lost the home games against well-supported neighbours such as St Helens, Warrington, Widnes and Wigan, and that season, finished bottom of the table, with only two wins from 26 matches.
Renowned rugby league reporter Harold Mather, of The Guardian, asked club secretary Ken Grundy: “How, in an area dominated by football enthusiasts who have such powerful clubs as Liverpool and Everton to support and idolise – even worship – do Huyton exist, let alone hope to flourish?”
The stalwart responded: “Swinton and Salford have a similar problem. Football in this area is a religion, not just a game, and the only way we can combat it is by success on the field.
“It is true of all Liverpool sports supporters that they will follow two cockroaches if their side’s winning. Therefore we must achieve better results out on the pitch.”
Seeking that improvement in fortunes, in the 1974 close-season, Huyton turned to the familiar Terry Gorman, who had played halfback in their Liverpool City days and later caught the eye as player-coach of Batley before a spell at Oldham.
Using his contacts book rather than sackloads of cash, he lured Wigan’s Derek Watts, a star of Leigh’s 1971 Challenge Cup Final success, another no-nonsense prop in Doug Davies from Salford as well as Leigh halfback Tommy Davies, blending them with the likes of winger David Leatherbarrow, fullback Trevor Lloyd and halfback Allan Nuttall, all part of the squad he inherited.
And in their 26 games in 1974-75, Huyton picked up twelve wins and two draws to finish an encouraging seventh, sparking hopes of a push for promotion the season after.
“We have a small board of six, led by chairman Wilf Hunt, and they are all working members,” explained Grundy.
“The spending of £5,000 may not seem much to many, but being able to enter the transfer market made a big difference to us.
“The wages paid are on a par with any in the division, everything is directed towards the players, and there is a tremendous spirit at the club
“Our 25-0 victory over Doncaster was our best as Huyton, and we also beat Hull 32-10 and Batley 20-0 away.
“Our object is to gain First Division status, and we are beginning to see daylight. We intend to keep going forward.”
Huyton finished ninth in each of the following two seasons, but by 1978-79, by which time club legend Geoff Fletcher was on board, were once more around the foot of the table, and in 1984, relocated to Runcorn.
Alt Park was later used by non-league football club Knowsley United (previously Kirby Town), but they suffered from the same issues of disorder as Huyton had, and folded in 1997. The Alt Park site is now a public recreation area.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 510 (July 2025)