Rotherham United travel to West Yorkshire for their next friendly when they take on Farsley Celtic at the Throstle Nest tomorrow (Tuesday, 16 July).
Founded in 1908 Farsley joined the West Riding County Amateur League eighteen years later. 1949 saw them join the Yorkshire League Division Two getting promoted to Division One at the end of the 1951/2 season. They were champions and runners-up a number of times and the 1974/5 season saw them reach the FA Cup first round for the first time taking on Tranmere Rovers who won two-nil. They had a few seasons of yo-yoing between Division One and Two and after the Yorkshire League and the Midland League combined 1982 saw them in the Division One North of the Northern Counties East League getting promoted to the Premier Division at the end of the 1984/5 season. Two years later they were promoted to the newly formed Division One of the Northern Premier League and seventeen years later were promoted to the Premier Division. After Spennymoor United failed to fulfil their fixtures and the League took their results away leaving Farsley champions until the FA stepped in and gave all teams who hadn’t played Spennymoor three points meaning Farsley ended up in third place losing to Workington in the play-off final. The end of the 2005/6 season saw Farsley promoted via the play-offs to the Conference North and got another promotion, again via the play-offs, the following season but were relegated after just one season.
Financial problems saw the club expelled from the league before the start of the 2009/10 season although being re-admitted they went into administration and when they couldn’t finish their fixtures March 2010 saw them expelled from the Conference and were disbanded.
They reformed as Farsley AFC for the 2010/11 season joining the Premier Division of the Northern Counties East League and after winning the title gained promotion to Division One North of the Northern Premier League. 2015 saw them return to the name Farsley Celtic and were promoted via the 2017 play-offs to the Premier Division.
Last season the Celt Army took the Premier Division title and they will start the coming season in the National League North.
Kick-off for this game on Tuesday is 7.30pm.
