Historical Archive - 1980s

The golden decade for the club. They did the treble in 1980/81, lifting the NPL Championship, NPL Cup and the NPL Shield, achieving promotion to the top flight of non-league football. After promotion, Runcorn continued their form and shocked the non-league world by winning the APL Championship at the first attempt by a seven-point margin, losing just five games. Runcorn also won the League Cup - known as the Bob Lord Trophy - on two occasions in 1982/83 and 1984/85, and were runners up in 1991/92. In the first ten years of APL football, Runcorn finished in the top eight on nine occasions. The "Conference Years" were also Runcorn's most successful periods in the FA Cup and FA Trophy. In their fifteen years of tenure, Runcorn reached the First Round six times and the Second Round four times. They also defeated two league sides in this time - Chester (1987/88) and Wrexham (1988/89). In the FA Trophy, Runcorn went one better than their three Semi-Final appearances in the 70s by reaching the Final at Wembley in 1986. Runcorn were also very successful in the Senior Cup, winning it for five consecutive years in from 1984/85 to 1988/89.

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