The town's first football club was called Fleetwood Rangers, it was made of mainly ex-military men, and the team played at the club's own Copse ground, which stood where Station Road and Siding Road are now. The club held an annual athletics and sports festival every August Bank Holiday which regularly included bicycle and flat (running) races, admission was 6d.
Fleetwood Rangers folded in 1899, to be succeeded by Fleetwood Football Club, who were formed in 1908, playing at the Highbury Stadium. "The club colours were originally amber and black, but changed to red and white around 1919, as part of an arrangement with a trawler fleet whose company colours were red and white".