Nickname(s) The Wood, The Prims Capacity 1,000 Chairman Justin Hodgin | Ground Capacity 1,000 Founded 1915 Manager Mark Swann | |
Full name Walsall Wood Football Club 2015–16 Midland League Premier Division, 7th Ground Oak Park; Walsall Wood (Currently The ML Safety Stadium) League Midland League Premier Division | ||
Walsall Wood Football Club are a football club based in Walsall Wood, near Aldridge in the West Midlands, England. For the 2013–14 season, they are members of the Midland League Premier Division, which sits at level 9 of the English football league system.
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The team play their home games at the Oak Park ground and are nicknamed "The Wood".
History
The club was formed in the early part of the 20th century, although the exact date is unknown, the earliest surviving records being from 1915. The club's original name was Walsall Wood Ebenezer Primitive Methodists, stemming from its affiliation with a local Methodist chapel. It is from this that the team's former nickname derives.
In the inter-war years they were considered amongst the strongest non-league clubs in the region, and won the Walsall Senior Cup in 1923 and the Walsall Senior League in 1946 and 1947. The club joined the Worcestershire Combination in 1951, winning the championship at the very first attempt and finishing as runners-up five times in the next decade. In 1982 they merged with Walsall Sportsco. and the new club became known as Walsall Borough F.C. and continued to play in what was now known as the Midland Combination. In 1986 the Walsall Wood name was re-adopted.
In 1992 the club switched to the Staffordshire Senior League for one season before re-locating once again to the West Midlands (Regional) League, starting in Division One but gaining promotion to the Premier Division at the first attempt. In 2000 they finished in 21st place and were relegated, but an appeal to the FA saw them reinstated in the top flight.
In 2006, due to a redrafting of the league boundaries, the Wood returned to the Midland Combination after 14 years.
The club reached the final of the Midland Football League Cup in 2016, but lost 3-1 after taking the lead over Hereford.
Crest
The club's badge incorporates the winding gear of a coal mine, symbolising the area's coal mining tradition, a cross, representing the club's original affiliation with a Methodist chapel, a castle, representing a castle which once stood in the area, and an oak tree, symbolising the "Shire Oak", a former local landmark after which Oak Park is named. The club's motto is "Pro Bono Silvae", Latin for "For the good of the wood".
Stadium
The Oak Park ground boasts a stand which dates from the 1930s, which the club claim is the only surviving stand of its type in England. Wolverhampton Wanderers visited the ground for its official opening.
The ground has been the subject of a spate of vandalism in recent years, with some of the brickwork of the stand having been removed.
For the 2015–16 season the ground is sponsored by ML Safety and will be called "The ML Safety Stadium"