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The History of Gateshead Football Club
The original Gateshead AFC was formed in 1930 when neighbours South Shields, members of the Football Leagues old Third Division North, moved to Gateshead’s Redheugh Park because of financial difficulties.
The newly formed "Tynesiders" almost capitalised immediately on their good fortune when only Lincoln City’s superior goal average deprived them of promotion to the second division in only their second season of league football.
However, it was to be the FA Cup that was to provide the club with its finest hour when cup fever gripped the Tyneside town in 1953.
After accounting for Liverpool in the third round, Gateshead progressed to the quarter final only for their Wembley aspirations to be denied by a single Nat Lofthouse goal for eventual finalists Bolton Wanderers.
A sell out Redheugh Park crowd of 17,692 had witnessed the spectacle but within five years the North Easterners found themselves founder members of the newly formed fourth division after they missed the cut for the third division by just one point.
Despite an average placing of 9th in 21 Third Division North campaigns, interrupted by the second world war, two years following the introduction of the fourth division came Gateshead's shock dismissal from League football.
The club had applied for re-election only once before in a relatively successful thirty-year period, but were nevertheless unceremoniously removed in favour of the more geographically acceptable Peterborough United.
An unsuccessful bid to join the Scottish Football League was followed by a brief spell in the Northern Counties League and then six years in North Regional League.
In 1968 Gateshead became founder members of the Northern Premier League but their stay in the new competition lasted only two years.
Their place was, ironically, taken by another former Football League outfit, Bradford Park Avenue, and they were forced to replace their own reserve team in the Wearside League. Finishing as runners up the Tynesiders then spent a season in the Midland League until in 1973, seven leagues and 43 years after its inception, Gateshead AFC ceased to exist.
A new club called Gateshead Town played the following season in the local Northern Combination League but, astonishingly, history was soon to repeat itself.
South Shields, then members of the Northern Premier League, sold their Simonside headquarters and moved to a new home at Gateshead Stadium.
Renamed Gateshead United the club soon became a force in the Northern Premier League while accounting for Football League clubs Grimsby Town and Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup.
However in 1977, after only three years of operation, came the shock announcement that United were to disband - the third body blow to hit Gateshead supporters in less than twenty years.
Constantly in the shadows of North East football giants Newcastle United and Sunderland it looked like the end of senior football in the town until another phoenix, this time in the form of the current Gateshead FC, rose from the ashes. Replacing Gateshead United in the Northern Premier League for the 1977-8 season the new club won the Championship in 1983 with a record 100 points and 114 goals.
After two years in the Conference, the Tynesiders returned to the Northern Premier League and lifted the title for the second time in 1986.
Their second spell in the Conference lasted just one season, though they were quick to bounce back, and reclaimed their top-flight status in 1990.
The accustomed role of Conference strugglers was transformed with 7th and 5th spots reached in successive campaigns, 1994/95 and 1995/96, as well as quarter-final appearances in the FA Trophy three times in four seasons.
It was Gateshead's most successful period as a non-league club but a productive period ended in 1998 when the club was relegated back to the Northern Premier League after eight consecutive seasons of Conference football.
The Tynesiders very existence was then theatened early in the new millennium when long-time sponsors Cameron Hall Developments pulled out.
Relegation to the Northern Premier League first division followed but, after one season, Gateshead were back in the NLP top flight following the introduction of a geographically split first division.
A club with a proud, if chequered, past is now set for a bright future under the guidance of wealthy chairman Graham Wood who is keen to reclaim former glories for his hometown club.
An ambitious Wood will oversee Gateshead's relocation from their 11,850 all seater, council owned International Stadium base to a new purpose built stadium in the next few years.
The former Sunderland vice-chairman is also determined for Gateshead to reclaim the Football League place which was unjustly taken from them 1960.
After just two years at the helm Wood's vision took a step closer to reality when the club was promoted to the Blue Square North via the Northern Premier League play-offs last season.
Gateshead finished third in the UniBond Premier division, NLP, last season and were joint-top goalscorers in the top ten divisions of senior English football including the Premiership and Football League.
The Tynesiders struck 93 league goals, the same as Conference North champions Kettering Town, and then beat Buxton 2-0 in the play-off final in front of a large four figure International Stadium crowd.
Gateshead are now just two promotions away from a coveted return to the Football League and are determined to build on last seasons record breaking promotion season.
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| Next - 11.07.2009 |
| - Huddersfield Town (H) 15:00 [FR] |
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| 1 |
Tamworth |
85 |
| 2 |
Gateshead |
80 |
| 3 |
Alfreton Town |
77 |
| 4 |
AFC Telford United |
76 |
| 5 |
Southport |
76 |
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| NB Group |
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| Hilton Newcastle Gateshead |
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| Bensham Washeteria |
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