Nickname(s) The Bloaters Chairman Mike Guymer | Ground Capacity 3,600 Founded 20 July 1897 | |
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Full name Great Yarmouth Town Football Club Ground Wellesley Recreation Ground, Great Yarmouth Manager Martyn Sinclair & Adam Mason League Eastern Counties Football League First Division | ||
Great Yarmouth Town Football Club is a football club based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. The club are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Premier Division and play at the Wellesley Recreation Ground, whose grandstand is believed to be the world's oldest football stand still in regular use, having been opened on 11 June 1892. The club is affiliated to the Norfolk County FA.
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History
The club was established on 20 July 1897, taking most of their players from two local clubs, Yarmouth Fearnoughts and Yarmouth Royal Artillery, which between them, had won the Norfolk Senior Cup for the previous four years running. In their first season in existence, the new club won the same trophy, beating Lynn Town 4–3 in a replay after a 0–0 draw in the first match. They won the cup five years in a row between 1902 and 1906, each time defeating Lynn Town in the final.
The clubs were founder members of the Norfolk & Suffolk League, winning it in 1913–14, 1926–27 and 1927–28. In 1935 they became founder members of the Eastern Counties League, and won the League Cup in 1938. The club remained in the same division until 2005, when they were relegated to Division One. In the 1947–48 season the club reached the first round of the FA Cup, but lost 4–1 at home to Shrewsbury Town in front of an attendance of 4,160.
In 1952 they won the East Anglian Cup, and the following season they reached the FA Cup first round again, beating Guildford City 1–0 in a replay after a 2–2 draw, before losing 4–1 at home to Wrexham, setting a new record attendance of 6,963. They reached the second round again the following season, beating Crystal Palace 1–0 before another record crowd of 8,944, before losing 5–2 at Barrow.
The club won the Eastern Counties League for the first, and to date only time in 1968–69. Former Norwich player Bill Punton took over as manager, and in a 21-year spell in charge (making him the club's longest serving manager), they won the League Cup again in 1975 and 1981, the Norfolk Senior Cup four times, as well as finishing as league runners-up twice and FA Vase semi-finalists in 1982–83, losing in extra-time to VS Rugby in front of a crowd of 4,552.
After relegation to Division One in 2005, the club remained at that level until winning the division in 2009–10. Great Yarmouth dropped back to Division One two seasons later, with a backdrop of financial difficulties threatening to put the club out of business. They were promoted to the Premier Division after finishing third in 2015–16.