Hyde F.C. Hyde F.C. was founded on 27 July 1885 at the White Lion pub in the town centre. They played on a field near the Bankfield Hotel, until 1898, when they moved to Townend Street and set up a club headquarters at the Gardeners Arms pub. They merged with Hyde St. George's in 1906 and played at
Ewen Fields. The club folded in 1917. with Peter Wragg as manager, also reaching the Northern Premier League Cup final— only to lose on penalties to
South Liverpool. to be followed by elimination from the
FA Trophy by
Kidderminster Harriers in the semi-final. During the 1995–96 season, Ewen Fields' astroturf pitch was relaid in grass, After Mike McKenzie left the club in 2001 by mutual consent, former player Dave Nolan took over as manager. In October 2002, former
Manchester United player
Gordon Hill was appointed as manager, but remained at the club for only two months. Following his departure, Hyde gave the job to former
Leigh boss Steve Waywell, though he could not prevent the club's relegation to the
Northern Premier League Division One in 2003. Hyde United won the
Northern Premier League Premier Division title in 2005 for the first time in their history, a
controversial win as Hyde were awarded the title following an appeal to the
Football Association. The title was originally awarded to
Farsley Celtic after the expunging of
Spennymoor United's results because they were unable to complete their fixtures that season (with a Hyde fixture one of those not played). On appeal, this decision was overturned and Hyde, along with other teams who had not played Spennymoor twice, were awarded three points for a "0–0 win"—sufficient to secure Hyde's first Northern Premier League title.
Football Conference playing for Hyde in their title winning season, 2011–12|alt=
Adam Griffin playing for Hyde in their title winning season, 2011–12 During their first season in the
Conference North league, the Tigers started slowly, but a run of better results mid-season saw them finishing 11th, with 56 points from 42 games. Further mid-table finishes followed in subsequent seasons, then Waywell left the club by mutual consent in October 2008, after a poor start to the season saw Hyde collect only five points from their first eight games and at the same time exit the
Conference League Cup in the first round. He was replaced by
Neil Tolson along with
Chris Brass, who left the club a few months later. Hyde finished the season in 20th place and faced relegation, only to be spared when
King's Lynn were demoted for failing to ensure that their home ground met Conference North standards. On 24 September 2009, the club was officially
wound up at the
High Court in London, with debts of around £122,000 to
HM Revenue and Customs. Over the following few days, major efforts by club officials, supporters and players, which included a bucket collection at a
Manchester City Premier League match, raised sufficient funds to lodge an appeal against the High Court decision. This was heard on 30 September 2009, and the original winding-up order was rescinded, with Leicestershire businessman John Manship stepping in as owner. Hyde finished the 2009–10 season in 15th place after a mid and late season fight back during which they lost only one home fixture. Before the start of the 2010–11 season, the club changed its name to
Hyde F.C. and Ewen Fields underwent a complete makeover, turning the ground from red to blue and switching to white shirts and blue shorts as part of a sponsorship deal with Manchester City. In the second half of the season, club chairman Steve Hartley and secretary Tony Beard both resigned from the board, and this was later followed by the sacking of manager
Neil Tolson. Tolson was replaced by
Scott McNiven and
Steve Halford, who acted as joint player-
caretaker managers, and Hyde escaped relegation on the last day of the season. Ahead of the 2011–12 season, Hyde appointed Gary Lowe as manager, with
Martyn Booty as his assistant. Their first 10 matches of the season saw Hyde win every match, equalling Hyde's best ever start to a season dating back to the 1925–26 season and also breaking the record for the best ever start to a season in Conference North. On the back of this incredible start, Hyde finished the season as Conference North champions following a 4–1 win over Boston United in their last home match of the season, gaining promotion to the
Conference Premier for the first time and breaking the club's record for the highest points total in their history with 90 points. Following the end of the season, manager Gary Lowe and assistant Martyn Booty resigned, to be replaced by
Scott McNiven and
Gavin McCann, respectively. After a two-year stay in the Conference Premier, the club was relegated back to the
Conference North after a 3–0 defeat to
Alfreton Town on 11 March 2014. The club only recorded one win in the whole of the 2013–14 campaign— a 2–0 win away at
Welling United. They finished the season in 24th place— bottom of the table, gaining only ten points throughout the whole season— a league record low points. With the club nine points adrift at the bottom of the Conference North in January 2015, the club parted company with manager
Scott McNiven. McNiven was replaced by former manager, Gary Lowe.
Return to the Northern Premier League Lowe was not able to overturn Hyde's slump at the bottom of the table, with the club picking up just ten points in their remaining 17 league games, sealing their fate for a second successive relegation. Lowe would remain at the helm as Hyde returned to the
Northern Premier League after ten years in the
Football Conference. Following the conclusion to the 2014-15 campaign, Hyde confirmed their deal with Manchester City had come to an end, with the club reverting to their name of
Hyde United. On 27 June 2015, the club announced that John Manship had offered to hand over control of the club, it had been successfully taken over by the Hyde United Supporters Club. Manship agreed to write off loans worth around £500,000 to help Hyde's supporters takeover the club. Hyde's new owners, the Hyde Supporters' Trust, sought advice from local side
FC United following their acquisition, with FC United being largest fan-owned club in the UK. Despite Kelly's appointment, the club was unable to prevent a third successive relegation, with Hyde losing all six of their final remaining games of the season, including their 4–0 defeat at home to
Nantwich Town on the final day of the season that confirmed their drop to the
Northern Premier League Division One. Despite their drop to the 8th tier of English football, Hyde made the decision to keep Kelly on board, appointing him to the manager position on a permanent basis. Under the stewardship of Kelly, Hyde finished 10th in the 2016–17 season, before securing promotion back to the Northern Premier League Premier at the end of the 2017–18 season with a 3rd-placed finish. In May 2019, having guided Hyde to a comfortable 10th-placed finish for the
2018-19 campaign, Kelly made the decision to step aside from his position to take up a new role as the club's sporting director. Kelly's assistant, former professional footballer
David McGurk was appointed as his successor. As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Hyde's season was cut short following the announcement that all competitions below the National League would be abandoned on 26 March 2020. At the time of the decision, Hyde were 10th in the league and had reached the semi-finals of the League Challenge Cup and
Cheshire Senior Cup. The
following season kicked off, with several measures and restrictions being implemented in order to make it possible. However, it would suffer the same fate as the previous season, with the FA announcing on 24 February 2021 that the season would be curtailed for steps 3-6 of non-league football. In August 2021, McGurk stepped down as first-team manager citing personal reasons. In his two years at the helm, McGurk was unable to see through a full-season as a result of the pandemic. In total, McGurk guided the club for 39 league games across two seasons, achieving a win-rate of 33.3%.
John McCombe, who had been McGurk's righthand man as player-assistant manager, stepped up on an interim basis before Hyde announced the appointment of former
Stockport County and
Port Vale manager
Jim Gannon on 31 August. Gannon was replaced by former Hyde player
Nicky Spooner four days later, with Spooner going on to help the club avoid the drop following a 17th-placed finish. In June 2024, former player
Jindřich Staněk (played on loan in the second half of the 2014–15 season), became starting goalkeeper for the
Czech Republic national football team at
UEFA Euro 2024. ==Colours, crest and sponsorship==