Eagley Football Club (Formerly Eagley Mills Football Club) can rightly claim to be on of the countries oldest amateur clubs, our existence being traced back as far as 1874. In October 1881 Eagley were Bolton Wanderers first ever opponents in the F.A. Cup. The sides played out a 5-5 draw in the first round of the competition, with Bolton going through in a 1-0 replay. In more recent times the club has gone through a number of changes. Reforming after the Second World War, Eagley entered the Bolton Sunday Schools League and after unprecedented success they moved into the Bolton Combination in the 1958/59 Season. During the next 10 year period, the club hit the heights on all fronts, including the winning of the coveted Lancashire Junior Shield in 1960, beating Atherton Cols 4-2 in a Replay final at Grundy Hill and the Bolton Combination Championship in 1965/66. The 1970’s saw the club decline until 1980 when a group of local enthusiasts stepped in to try and revive Eagley to some of it’s former glories. In 1981 the club appointed ex Walker Institute stalwart Paul Thompson as Manager with Peter Conroy as his assistant. This led to a further period of huge success in the combination plus a Lancashire Junior Shield Final appearance, losing 3-2 to Latham & Burscough and an excellent 2-1 Hospital Cup Final victory over Little Hulton.
A new phase of the clubs history was entered into on joining the West Lancashire League for the 1988/89 season. After 2 seasons settling into the league, the club appointed Terry Finney as Team Manager, immediately the club tasted success, being promoted to the Premier Division as Champions. Terry’s success continued over the next 8 seasons with the club making appearances in the West Lancashire Presidents & Richardson’s Cup finals, along with 4 Hospital Cup finals, winning 2. During this period the club suffered a major blow when the clubhouse was completely destroyed by fire in August 1992. With much work & effort the Football & Cricket Clubs joined together to rebuild a new clubhouse which is still used and enjoyed by many today.
Peter Derby became manager of the club in the season 2000-01 & brought new success to the club.In a seven year spell he was runners up in west lancs league prem,won Richardson cup & Hospital cup.
In 2008-09 the club appointed Paul Marriott as Manager & Gary Young as assistant they managed to save the club from relegation & won The hospital cup winning 3 2 against Atherton LR in their first season in charge.In the season 2009-10 Paul & Gary won the Hospital cup again beating Stoneclough 2 1 & made great progress in the league.In the period from 2010-11 to 2011-12 seasons Paul & Gary managed the club to two more Hospital cup,Lancashire Shield finals & no lower than 4th position in the league.In the season 2012-13 Paul brought in Scott Campbell as his assistant & the new management team had the most successfull season in the clubs history winning the Lancashire Shield by beating Charnock Richard 3 0,Richardson cup beating Blackpool Wren 4 2 ,West lancs team of the year,manager of the month for february & a 3rd Hospital cup beating Tempest 4 1,the reserves won the league & the juniors won 4 trophies between them all in one season.All in all over a five year spell Eagley FC were involved in 8 cup finals of which 5 were won & a no lower than 4th in the league finish.This period is the most successfull period in Eagleys history thus far.
The current first team manager is ex – professional Simon Whaley who has made over 200 league appearances, playing for Bury, Preston North End, Norwich City, and Chesterfield. He was brought in after wholesale changes to the committee and management in 2014/15 season where he took over the reigns from Alex Harvie. Simon has recently brought in ex local player in Scott Derbyshire as his assissitant.