Wigan Borough FC is an English football club from the town of Wigan in Greater Manchester.  The club started life as Wigan Association FC in October 1920 when Wigan United, an amateur club, was forced to close down after it was discovered that they had been making "broken time" payments to players. The new club took over United's fixtures in the Lancashire Combination and in November 1920, the Lancashire FA agreed the club could change its name to Wigan Borough. This was largely in order to avoid confusion with the famous Wigan RLFC, the town's Rugby League club.  The following season Borough applied to join the new Third Division (North) of the Football League, despite finishing next to last in the Combination. Remarkably, Borough were elected, the league clubs being keen to penetrate into this rugby stronghold. The team's best performances were in 1923, when they finished in fifth place, and 1929 (fourth). Otherwise, the team generally finished well down the league. As the Great Depression took hold, the Wigan public remained resolutely disinterested, preferring to support their successful rugby league side. Home gates dwindled to a few thousand (only 600 turned up to watch Gateshead in a snowstorm at the end of January 1931) and Borough were struggling to pay their players' wages at the end of the 1930-31 season. With twelve matches of the 1930-31 season played, Borough had lost every match away from home and picked up seven points from their six home games but the players were again without their wages. Following an ultimatum from The Football League the directors decided to resign from the League. Their record was expunged and Wigan Borough went into voluntary liquidation.