Crowle Colts F.C.

Crowle Teams prior to Crowle United

Pre-World War II, there were three main football teams in Crowle: Crowle Brickworks, Crowle Institute, and Crowle Town. After the war, the Sun Engineering side was formed and became Crowle's main team. It had a secondary team named Axholme Wanderers, which was formed for younger players who had only played football intermediately during the war. All of these sides competed in the Scunthorpe League.

Crowle United

In 1966, Crowle Sports, the reformed Sun Engineers side, unexpectedly resigned from the Scunthorpe League a week prior to the start of the season. As a result, all of the remaining Crowle Sports players joined Axholme Wanderers, which left just one main football team in Crowle. Ahead of the 1967–68 season, Axholme Wanderers reformed as Crowle United. United went on to have great local success, with their most notable achievement coming in the 1970–71 season when they completed a treble, being crowned champions of the Scunthorpe League, as well as winning the Scunthorpe Challenge Cup and the Lincolnshire FA County Junior Cup. In 1973, United joined the Lincolnshire League. They would go on to compete in the league for seventeen seasons, before leaving it at the end of the 1988–89 season due to ground issues, having left their Potts Lane ground to play at North Axholme School, which was deemed unsuitable.

Crowle Colts

In 1992, a junior football team named was formed under the name Crowle Colts, a name that had been used in previous years for junior sides in Crowle. In 1996, an emergency meeting took place which saw most of Crowle United's committee step down. United folded, and the following year, two new clubs were formed: Crowle United Junior Colts, who aligned with the Crowle Colts junior side, and Crowle FC, who took Crowle United's place in Division One of the Scunthorpe League. The two clubs ultimately decided to merge in 1999, resulting in the formation of the current team: Crowle Colts.

The Colts began life in Division Five of the Scunthorpe League in the 1997–98 season and would remain in the league until 2018, with the exception of three seasons in the Gainsborough and District League in the early 2000s.

At the start of the 2018–19 season, The Colts were crowned champions of the Scunthorpe League and joined the Central Midlands Football League. They went on to secure successive promotions. In the 2022–23 season, after three seasons in the Central Midlands League, the club joined the Lincolnshire League, following in the footsteps of the Crowle United side that had left the league 33 years earlier. That season saw The Colts match Crowle United's best ever finish in the Lincolnshire League, finishing third. The 2023–24 campaign saw that record surpassed, as The Colts finished runners-up to Nettleham despite scoring a record-breaking 149 league goals. They also won the Lincolnshire FA County Junior Cup that season for the first time in 53 years.

Joining the football pyramid

In the 2024–25 season, Crowle Colts were promoted to the Northern Counties East League Division One for the first time, after finishing second in the Lincolnshire League. They won the Lincolnshire FA County Junior Cup again that season, completing back-to-back triumphs in the competition.

In the 2025–26 season, their first in the Northern Counties East League, The Colts recorded an impressive 10th-place finish. They sat in the play-off positions at the halfway point of the season following an impressive start, but a difficult second half of the campaign, which included a run of seven successive defeats between December and February, saw them drop out of the play-off picture and finish mid-table. The club also took part in the FA Vase for the first time that season. They defeated Maine Road and Dearne & District in the first and second qualifying rounds respectively, before exiting at the hands of Rossington Main in the first round proper.

After a rocky start to the new season, winning just 1 of their first 5 matches, Crowle announced that their footballing management team including long standing manager Gav Cooper had all joined local rivals Club Thorne Colliery F.C. on the 24th August Colts announced a new management team of Grant Black and Danny Frost who had previously managed Brighouse Town F.C.

On 12 August 2026, it was confirmed that Colts' management team of Gav Cooper, Ben Simpson, Lee Ridley and Jon Taylor had left the club to join local and divisional rivals Club Thorne Colliery. On 22 August, the club announced a new management team of Grant Black and Danny Frost, who had recently managed together at Brighouse Town.

Players

Staff