For the first 66 years of its existence the club played in local junior leagues around Huddersfield.

By the mid-1960s Emley were the top non-league team in the Huddersfield District, thanks to a rich crop of local players, including; Michael Pamment, Chris Flew, Roger Wood, Ian Kettlewell, Granville Ellam, John Douglas and Melvyn Matley.

Emley won the Sheffield Cup in 1975–76, the game finished 2–0 over Worksop Town and was played at Hillsborough.

During the 1979–80 season Emley reached the first round proper of the FA Trophy but were knocked out by Blyth Spartans.

Emley added floodlights to their facilities in 1981, when these were quite rare for non-league clubs at that level.

This paid off when floodlights became compulsory for clubs in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division.

John Francis later of Sheffield United and Burnley, scoring the all important goal to take Emley to Wembley.

They reached the First Round in a match against Bolton Wanderers, in front of 9,035 at Huddersfield Town's Leeds Road ground they went out 3–0.

Emley won the Sheffield Cup for the seventh time and finished respectably in the league, but manager Gerry Quinn left in the summer to take over Altrincham and the most influential players in the squad went with him.

The same season the club finished fourth in the NPL Premier Division, their highest ever position.

In the Second Round they faced, Lincoln City and after a replay and extra-time, Emley won the tie 4–3.

The match ended 2–1 with Paul David scoring for Emley, Frank Lampard and John Hartson grabbed the two Hammers goals (The team that day also featured Rio Ferdinand).

After a poor to average couple of seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s and with ambitions from the chairman, it emerged that Emley were looking to leave the village.

Although primarily a rugby city, the club moved to Wakefield's Belle Vue for their home games in the 2000–01 season.

At their new ground striker Simeon Bambrook scored 30 goals and Danny Day 23 for Emley, during the season.

Emley reached the Sheffield Cup Final, only to lose to Doncaster Rovers 2–1 at Hillsborough and Simeon Bambrook gained an England semi-professional side call-up.

They again reached the Sheffield Cup Final and again lost to Doncaster Rovers at Hillsborough, this time 3–0.

This alienated most of the supporters from the village and surrounding areas as the club frequently began to be referred to as simply "Wakefield".

In the close season Northern Counties East League disbanded its reserve division.

In 2007, Wakefield played in the inaugural season of the Northern Premier League Division One North.

[1] Wakefield resigned from the Northern Premier League at the end of the 2013–14 season[2] and had planned to participate in the Northern Counties East Football League in the 2014–15 season with a view to returning to The Welfare Ground in Emley, where they were to share with AFC Emley.