The club continued in the Combination until 1970 with varying degrees of success including an FA Cup second round appearance, losing to Gateshead, in 1947-48 and a Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy final victory in 1951-52, but by the end of the 1960s it was decided that a change was needed so for the 1970–71 season the club left the Combination to join the Northern Premier League, a league that had been established two years earlier. City again reached the second round of the FA Cup in 1972-73, losing 2-1 at Notts County and won the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy for a sixth time in 1974-75, but after finishing seventeenth in 1981–82 the club resigned from the Northern Premier League and dropped into the North West Counties League when financial difficulties took hold and forced them to fold and reform. Three years later they were relegated to the second tier after finishing second from bottom of the league. Despite having only finished thirteenth in 1986-87, the club were accepted into the newly formed Division One of the Northern Premier League thanks to in no small part to ground standard and support.