[2] In 1878, the club was one of the founder members of the Cheshire Football Association, along with Crewe Alexandra, Northwich Victoria, Macclesfield and Wincham.

The club lost every match it played, other than a remarkable win over Crown FC from Wrexham in the first round in 1882–83, given as "by seven goals and two disputed to nil",[5] with Wilding scoring a hat-trick.

It reached the semi-final, but lost 5–2 to Northwich Victoria; the game ended after 80 minutes, after a kick at a prostrate player resulted in a brawl and Hartford leaving the pitch.

With a handful of matches to go, the Saints were top of the table,[12] but this meant that bigger and richer clubs were scouting out the team's players.

Norwich Victoria took two players with no notice, which meant the team had to use replacements who were not registered with the league, costing the club two points.