Saltash United Football Club, nicknamed “The Ashes,” is a non-league football club based in Saltash, Cornwall.
They currently compete in the Jewson Western League Premier Division, which is part of the ninth tier of English football. The team calls Waterways Stadium their home ground.
Football in Saltash can be traced back to the 1890s, when early teams such as Essa and Saltash Athletic were active, though little is known about their exact origins. Essa FC was forced to withdraw from league competition in 1900 following suspension by the Devon County FA. The 1920s saw the rise of Saltash Stars and an earlier incarnation of Saltash United, but financial problems plagued both. The first Saltash United folded in 1927 amid allegations of illegal payments, while Saltash Stars, later renamed Saltash Town, won three straight Cornwall Senior Cups before dissolving in 1932.
The present-day Saltash United was formed in 1946, beginning life in the Plymouth and District League and winning their opening competitive fixture against Landulph 7-1. Success quickly followed, with the team claiming a treble of county trophies in 1951, including the Cornwall Senior Cup, Herald Cup, and Cornwall Charity Cup. A year later, they moved to Kimberley Stadium, marking the occasion with a 5-1 victory over Tavistock in front of a large crowd. Saltash lifted the South Western League title in 1953-54 but financial difficulties again forced the club to fold in 1958. They were re-established the following year and soon secured the inaugural East Cornwall League title, with centre-forward Mike Greeno scoring prolifically during the early 1960s.
Kimberley Stadium saw further development in 1969 with the opening of a new pavilion, and the club joined the Western League in the mid-1970s, winning Division One and later achieving three Premier Division titles during the 1980s. A strong FA Cup run in 1987-88 ended in the fourth qualifying round. Travel costs prompted a return to the South Western League in the mid-1990s, followed by a brief Western League spell in the 2000s. In more recent years, Saltash enjoyed success under Matthew Cusack, lifting the Cornwall Senior Cup in 2018 and earning promotion back to the Western League Premier Division in 2021. The club finished runners-up in 2022-23, narrowly missing promotion, in the final season of long-serving striker Sam Hughes, who scored 305 goals in 13 years.