Pontefract is known to have had a football club as far back as the 1890s when a side, presumably composed mainly of soldiers, competed in the West Yorkshire League as Pontefract Garrison. Much of the history of the game in the town is still in need of further research, but it is known that a Pontefract Borough club reached the dizzy heights of the Yorkshire League in the late 1920s.
They failed to finish the 1929–30 season, though. But by 1935, a club called Tanshelf Gems managed to acquire a ground on Ackworth Road, moved there, and became Pontefract United.
United ruled the roost in local football before the war, but when hostilities ended in Europe, they were rekindled in the town with the appearance of a Pontefract Collieries side, who by the late 1950s had gained slight bragging rights over their town rivals, both playing in the West Yorkshire League.
But in 1960 the old Collieries club became extinct, only for the name to return a couple of years later when United merged with a local youth side and adopted the name for themselves.
The new club quickly gained in stature and found considerable success in the West Yorkshire League, before joining the Yorkshire League in 1979. Progress on the field continued, culminating in a Yorkshire League Division Three Championship
win in 1982. This was the last season of
the old Yorkshire and Midland Leagues, which then combined to form the Northern Counties East League.
The Colls were founder members of the new league. Successive promotions were gained in the first two seasons; the Runners-Up spot in Division Two (North) being followed rapidly by the Division One (North) Championship. This meteoric rise saw the Colls into the top flight of the NCEL, a position they held for a decade. Progress on the field was matched by ground improvements, as floodlights, a new clubhouse, stands, seats, and other major changes took place. Much of the work was done during the miners’ strike, cementing further, literally, the club’s relationship with the mining industry and local community.
The floodlight opening in 1987 saw the Collieries take on Hull City in a friendly, watched by the record 1,000 crowd for the Skinner Lane ground. More honours came the club’s way as the NCEL Floodlit Cup was won twice, and two West Riding County Cup Finals were reached. Another near miss was the appearance in the NCEL Presidents Cup Final in 1994.
Managers Paul Cooper, John Brown, and Ged Elliott had been the main inspirations behind the footballing rise of the club during this sustained period of progress. But when the last of this line, Ged Elliott, left the club during 1994–95, a sudden decline could not be halted and the first relegation for many a year came about. The appointment of new boss, Jim Kenyon, soon halted the slide, however, and the Colls bounced straight back, taking the Runners-Up spot, and winning the Wilkinson Sword Trophy along the way.
The following season saw Pontefract in yet another cup final, when they lost out by 3 –1 to Hucknall Town at Millmoor in the NCEL League Cup Final. Success could not be sustained, though, and by 1998–99, a disastrous start saw the first 11 games lost, and only 7 points gained by Christmas. New manager, Peter Daniel, came in, and almost turned the fortunes around in an amazing rear-guard battle.
The club still lost its Premier Division status, finishing second bottom, but only on goal difference.
Steve Kittrick then took up the challenge with a more locally based squad, and an emphasis on youth development. 1999-00 saw the Under-16’s win the West Riding Junior Cup, and the Under-19’s reach the Northern Youth Alliance League Cup Final. The senior squad also reached the Wilkinson Sword Trophy Final, which was narrowly lost on a 4–2 aggregate to Goole.
But successes at youth level were ultimately unable to be repeated by the senior squad, and Steve Kittrick left, after a disappointing finish to the 2000–01 campaign. The successful youth coach, Gary Batley, took over for the 2001–02 campaign, but a very young and unsettled side saw a disastrous season end with the Colls rock bot-tom of the NCEL First Division.
2002–03 saw Peter Daniel return, and improvements on the field were obvious from the very start. Ironically, despite bringing in a few key players to strengthen the squad, much of the side were graduates from the club’s youth policy, which seemingly had not matured quite quickly enough for previous managers.
The season saw the club reach its best ever stage in national competitions, reaching the Second Round Proper of the FA Vase, and with another Cup Final appearance in the Wilkinson Sword Trophy, this time losing out to Mickleover Sports, 3–1 on aggregate. A strong run in the second half of the league season saw the Colls finish in fourth place in Division One.
But optimism for the 2003–04 campaign soon evaporated, and after a poor start, Pete Daniel resigned. Reserve team manager Roly Lanes took over the reins, and the club were pulled off bottom spot, but still needed to apply for re-election. Battles off the field have dominated recent times, with fires destroying seats and parts of the stand, the tea bar, and the closure of the adjacent Prince of Wales Colliery and loss of the electricity supply.
On the field, Collieries continued to struggle, and only avoided relegation on more than one occasion as a consequence of Pyramid restructuring. Progress in national competitions was virtually nil.
Things reached rock bot-tom in 2007–08 when, despite winning the first league game, Ponte then failed to win another for the rest of the season, and finished with just 9 points, a staggering 15 adrift of the club above them. Once again, relegation was avoided as the club were saved by the constant restructuring of the Pyramid league system.
Turmoil and bad feeling dominated the summer break, seeing the departure of the management team and most of the Committee as well. But this provided an excellent opportunity for the club to rebuild, and to put in place a plan for the future where none had previously existed.
2008-9 saw a new and enthusiastic Committee appoint new manager, Simon Houghton, from local Central Midlands League side Kinsley Boys, and after just 4 league games the new team gained the 9 points it won the previous season. For the first part of the season, the club kept pace with eventual champions Scarborough Athletic at the top of the table, but unfortunately, a disastrous spell into the new-year saw the club embark on a run of 1 win in 9, which saw the club finish in ninth place.
2009–10 saw continual improvement from Houghton’s players. The side was strengthened and
despite a slow start, the side eventually finished the sea-son in fifth place, taking four points off promoted Brighouse Town during the campaign.
Despite the team topping the league during the Christmas and New Year period in the 2010–11 Season, the team’s results fell away badly in the early months of 2011.
As a result, Simon Houghton left the club, with former Leeds United captain Brendon Ormsby being brought in as manager. During his first dozen games in charge of the club, Ormsby used the remainder of last season to assess the players at his disposal and start to implement changes to the playing style of the team. With several target signings brought in during the closed season to enhance his squad, Ormsby prepared his team for an assault on the NCEL First Division.
Unfortunately, success wasn’t forthcoming for the Colls, and a bad spell during the middle of the 2012-2013 season led to Ormsby leaving the club by mutual consent. Player-managers Nick Handley and Duncan Bray stepped into the breach for the club, and with one defeat in the last ten league games, they ended the season with the club in-form, including record victories over Askern Villa: 9-0 and 10-2.
The season ended with the club finishing in fifth position for the third consecutive season. The 2013-2014 season was one of consolidation as Bray and Handley brought in new players and stamped their style of play on the squad. 2013/14 ended in a disappointing ninth place but with a clear plan in place for the 2014/15 season.
The plan was delivered and 2014/15 turned out to be a successful season for the Colls as they finished as runners up in the NCEL Division 1 and achieved promotion to the NCEL Premier League after an absence of fifteen seasons. Along the way they achieved the season’s records for highest away win, best aggregate score, most goals scored (joint with Louth Town), second best defence and most clean sheets.
Ponte now looked forward to making their mark in the NCEL Premier in 2015/16 and new players have been added to strengthen last year’s promotion winning squad.
For the remainder of the 2015/16 season the Colls had a new management team with manager Craig Parry assisted by Craig Rouse and Nigel Danby. Colls fought to the bitter end and unfortunately ended up in the third from bottom spot and back into division one.
The 2016/17 season saw many changes in players and staff behind the scenes and on the field, with emphasis on the clubs infrastructure being paramount. The team had a great pre-season and that gave the side the building blocks for the year they had.
After a great start with 9 wins out of the first 9 games (including friendlies) the Colls had started will in both league and the FA Cup. The latter saw us reach our joint furthest in the competition after
wins against Runcorn Town and Bootle who both went on to have good league campaigns in their own right. We ended up getting knocked out by Tadcaster Albion after a thrilling cup tie going 2-0 down then 3-1 down and after pulling a goal back to make it 3-2 were then harshly not given a late penalty!
The league saw us put in some brilliant runs of form however our end of September early October form saw us only win 2 out of 7 games! But the Colls then lost only losing once in 21 games to a Hallam side at their own ground who were rarely beaten at home. This saw us leap from 6th to the top of the league.
But 2 losses in 3 games saw us lose our strong position at the top and we had our fate in our own hands on the final day requiring a win on the final day away at Worsbrough Bridge to gain promotion, which we did 2-1 to return back to the NCEL Premier Division.
2017/18 saw what can only be described as a spectacular season. The mighty Ponte Colls surprised everyone (probably most at the club too). We started the season brilliantly winning 12 out of our first 13 games scoring 50 goals in the process.
By the end of 2017 Ponte had only lost 3 times in league football and were still going strong in the FA Vase.
Due to these cup runs we sat third in the league and 18 points behind league leader AFC Mansfield but many games in hand. But by the time we travelled to Mansfield for the “Title Decider” we were right on their tails, The game was billed to be a close battle yet Ponte took the wheels off the Mansfield title charge and hammered them 3-0 in their back yard!
A win in Ponte’s next game would guarantee our historic first promotion to the Evo Stik. Away at Maltby Main saw Ponte do exactly what was needed a 2-0 win and mass celebrations. The Colls followed this up with a midweek win again away, this time at Handsworth Parramore and a 3-1 win and Pickering losing the following night meant Ponte were CHAMPIONS of the NCEL Premier Division.
After 2 consecutive promotions the Colls had an extremely successful first ever season at Step Four in 2018-19 in the NPL Division One East finishing as runners-up to Morpeth Town. A good pre-season saw the Colls gain 2 pieces of silverware – The Bill Cook Memorial Trophy against Glasshoughton Welfare and the Inaugural Colliery Cup from a keenly contested game against NPL Division One West side Atherton Collieries. The Colls narrowly lost out on promotion to the NPL Premier Division at the first time of asking after losing to Brighouse Town in the Play-offs.
A successful pre-season in 2019 saw the Colls again retain the Bill Cook Memorial Trophy against Glasshoughton Welfare (winning 9-2) and also retain the Colliery Cup against the 2018/19 NPL Division
One West champions Atherton Collieries (winning 6-1). However the 2019-20 league season was curtailed early due to the coronavirus pandemic. We go again for 2020-21 looking for more success.
Up the Colls!