Gateshead F.C.

History

Although the club was formed in 1977, it can trace its roots back to 1889. Then, South Shields Adeleide, located eight miles (14 km) from Gateshead, were formed. They originally played in the Northern Alliance before joining the North Eastern Leagues and changing name to just South Shields. They joined the extended Football League Second Division in 1919–20. The mid-to-late 1920s saw the club struggling financially before in 1928 the club finished bottom and were relegated to the Third Division (North). After two unsuccessful seasons in the lower division, the struggling club took the step of not just leaving the Horsley Hill ground but of moving the club to another town in search of more support. Newcastle upon Tyne, was mentioned as a possible destination, but Gateshead was eventually chosen, mainly due to the enthusiastic support of the Gateshead Council.

The 'new' club, Gateshead A.F.C., stayed in the Football League until 1960 when they failed to win re-election after finishing in the bottom three of Division Four. They played in various regional leagues before becoming founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968, staying for just two seasons before finishing bottom and again failing to win re-election. They joined the Midland League in 1971 but in August 1973 the club ran into financial problems and were liquidated.

In 1974, history repeated itself. A second South Shields FC, formed in 1936, after the previous incarnation had made the afore-mentioned move, also made the move to Gateshead, becoming Gateshead United. United however were not around for too long, being wound up in 1977.

In 1977, a new club was formed – Gateshead F.C.. The club were immediately accepted into the Northern Premier League. By this time, their home ground, the Gateshead Youth Stadium, had been upgraded and renamed as Gateshead International Stadium with facilities good enough for a higher grade of football.

After six years Gateshead won promotion from the Northern Premier League to the Alliance Premier League in 1983, with a record tally of points and goals scored. With a relatively lucrative sponsorship, Gateshead spent several seasons in the Football Conference. However, the sponsorship money dried up, and the club started to decline, spending the 2003–04 season in the Northern Premier League First Division. A 6th-place finish was enough to gain promotion to the Premier Division due to the restructuring of the National League System.

A new board was appointed under the Chairmanship of Graham Wood, which saw Gateshead regain its momentum with the appointment of Ian Bogie as manager. On 3 May 2008, Gateshead beat Buxton 2–0 in the Northern Premier League Premier Division Play-Off Final and were, therefore, promoted to the recently formed Conference North.

Gateshead F.C. absorbed local club Low Fell Juniors to form Gateshead Juniors from the start of the 2008/09 season, expanding the number of teams under the club banner.

Gateshead finished the 2008–09 season in the Conference North in second (2nd) place. They qualified for the play-offs along with Alfreton Town, Telford United and their semi-final opponents Southport. Gateshead beat Southport 2–1 on aggregate and won the Play-Off Final 1–0 against Telford, earning promotion back to the Conference Premier where they remain.

Gateshead announced on 13 October 2009 that they would be moving to a full-time employed playing squad for the beginning of the 2010–2011 season.

On 10 December 2012, manager Ian Bogie and assistant Terry Mitchell were relieved of their duties at the club. Reserve team manager Anth Smith named caretaker manager. Three days later, Smith was named permanent manager and given a contract until the end of the 2012–13 season. On 18 August 2013, David Rush, Smith's assistant, was named as caretaker manager after his resignation, before former York City manager Gary Mills was appointed on 3 September 2013. Mills took Gateshead to third place in the Conference at the end of his first season as manager, qualifying the team for the end-of-season promotion play-offs. An aggregate win over Grimsby Town took Gateshead to their first appearance at Wembley Stadium. However, on 18 May 2014, they lost 2–1 to Cambridge United, who were promoted back into the Football League after a nine-season absence. Gateshead are currently focusing on getting into the Football League.

Stadium

Gateshead currently play their home games at Gateshead International Stadium with their biggest attendance there being 8,144 for the second leg of their Conference Premier play-off against Grimsby Town on 4 May 2014, which the Heed won 3–1 and 4–2 on aggregate. There was a pitch invasion by the home fans after the Tynesiders secured their first ever place at Wembley.

The stadium has held some of the region's concerts in the past and can hold up to 12,000 attendees. It has a good quality pitch and a professional athletic running track. The stadium includes both covered and uncovered seating. The Tyne and Wear main stand houses the home fans and includes award winning press and executive boxes as well as outdoor executive seating in the centre of the main stand, which is all covered seating. There are refreshment facilities and a bar in the stand and underneath a cafe and restaurant. The away fans are housed in the upper of the east stand, which is also covered seating, and also includes refreshment facilities. The north and south terraces are uncovered seating behind each goal and are used for more popular games and athletics events. The stadium is the largest in the region after St James' Park and the Stadium Of Light.

On 28 October 2009, Gateshead unveiled plans for a new football stadium to be built in the town centre. The stadium will be built on a derelict site opposite the Gateshead Civic Centre, formerly the home of North Durham Cricket & Rugby Club.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Manager history

A list of Gateshead FC managers from 1990 onwards.

Colours & crest

Gateshead A.F.C. played their final season in South Shields wearing claret and blue colours for the first time, after moving to Gateshead in 1930 the club continued to play in these colours, until 1936. The 1937 season saw Gateshead change from claret and blue to their, now familiar plain white shirts, black shorts and socks. However, Gateshead briefly altered the style to play in black and white stripes for their FA Cup quarter-final match against Bolton Wanderers, before reverting to what it was previously, a plain white shirt, black shorts and socks. The club continued to play in this combination until the late 1970s when they changed to an all-white strip after they had moved to the Gateshead International Stadium.

Gateshead United slightly altered the all white kit and added a second colour, a green front panel in a similar fashion to Ajax's famously known shirt.

1977 saw Gateshead F.C. formed in the year of the Silver Jubilee, and they subsequently played in an all red strip with a white and blue vertical slash on the shirt. Gateshead continued to play in odd-coloured variations until the mid-1980s, when the club changed back to its more traditional colours of a white shirt, black shorts and socks and they have played in these same colours ever since. Since 2011, Gateshead has adopted their original colours of claret and blue as the club's away strip.

The club's crest incorporates an image of the statue the Angel of the North which is a symbol both in the club and in the surrounding area.

Honours

Gateshead (1) (1930–73):

Gateshead (2) (1977–present):

* Reserve team

Rivalries

When Gateshead AFC were previously a Football League club, their main rivals used to be Hartlepool United, Darlington and Carlisle United.

Due to geographical isolation for the level of Non-League football clubs, Gateshead originally didn't have any strong local rivalries. However, a bitter local rivalry developed with Blyth Spartans at the beginning of the 1990s, when Gateshead and Blyth were in the Northern Premier League together. Other rivalries involving Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor Town and Whitby Town also existed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

For the 2010/11 season, Gateshead's rivalry with Darlington began again, after Darlington were relegated from the Football League to the Conference Premier. However the demise of Darlington F.C. in 2012 saw this come to an end. Their six meetings over the two seasons saw the Quakers take two victories to Gateshead's one with three draws. Two of these meetings came in the FA Trophy semi-finals in which Darlington won 3–2 on aggregate with all goals coming in the first leg at the Darlington Arena with future Heed midfielder Liam Hatch scoring a late double with Gateshead 2–1 up. Gateshead's solitary victory over the two seasons saw Jon Shaw's stoppage time header give Ian Bogie's team a 1–0 away win on New Year's Day 2012, six days after the two teams played out a 1–1 draw at the Gateshead International Stadium on Boxing Day. Following Darlington's demise two months after being relegated, a new club called Darlington 1883 was formed. The two have met once competitively, a 4–1 home win for Gateshead on 8 January 2014 in the Durham Challenge Cup.

The birth of the rivalry with Blyth Spartans was contested twice in 2011, (in two different seasons) the first time the two teams had played each other in 2 years. The first game in February was an FA Trophy game at Blyth's Croft Park where Gateshead won 0–2 thanks to a Chris Swailes own goal and a James Curtis goal played in front of a large crowd of 2719. The second game was an FA Cup game between the two again at Croft Park and had a very similar outcome with a 0–2 win thanks to goals from Jon Shaw and Micky Cummins, the crowd was this game was again a large one with 2763 people watching on. A reported 900–1000 travelled from Gateshead in both games.

In 2014, a rivalry with Grimsby Town emerged after crowd trouble at a playoff match between the two teams. This rivalry declined after Grimsby were promoted from the National League in 2016.

Club officials

Coaching and fitness Staff

Others