Club History
The club was formed in 1944 under the name of Axwell Park Colliery Welfare, although they were colloquially termed the "Home Guard Team"!
In the early days they played in the Derwent Valley League, before switching to the Northern Combination and, in 1974, to the Wearside League. Whickham enjoyed quite a degree of success at this level before joining the Northern League Second Division in 1988.
Having reached the Semi Final of the FA Vase in 1978/79 losing to Almondsbury Greenway, It was in 1981 that Whickham had their finest hour, going all the way to the Twin Towers in the final of the FA Vase, after a titanic struggle, to overcome Windsor & Eton in the semi Final. An estimated 5,000 fans followed Whickham to Wembley . Willenhall, a Midlands Club, awaited Whickham on the big day, but there were problems. Paul Allon, who had notched the crucial injury- time winner in the semi, suffered injury before the Final and had to be content with a place on the bench. Ironically, this made room for lan Diamond, who had suffered the same fate whilst with Blue Star in 1978.
The Final began horribly, with Willenhall going 2-0 up in the opening ten minutes. The task of winning the Vase appeared to be a forlorn one, but the gloom was partially dispelled when fullback Alan Scott quickly halved the deficit. Then, an accidental collision with Cawthra led to the Willenhall goalkeeper being stretchered off. Was the tide turning?
Twelve minutes into the second half, and Whickham were level, thanks to Ronnie Williamson. 2-2 it was, and 2-2 it stayed till the 90-minute mark. Who could dig that bit deeper, and find the extra reserves of strength needed to life the trophy? The answer was supplied in the dying seconds of the first half of extra-time. Billy Cawthra broke away and launched a potent shot which, though blocked, ricocheted off a hapless Willenhall defender into the net. 3-2, and the FA Vase was headed back to Whickham!
This success leaves us as the last North East based club to win a National Final at the now re-built Wembley Stadium, our clubs little piece of History.
Whickham again nearly reached Wembley in 1983/84 before losing in their 3rd Semi Final in a controversial game in the 2nd leg at home against Stansted which saw 2 Whickham players sent off in a bad tempered game.
After just one season in the 2nd Division under the management of Billy Hodgson the club gained promotion for the first time into the 1st Division in 1988/89 and spent 3 seasons there before being relegated in 19991/92. Another Promotion came in 19994/95 when they won the 2nd Division. A further two seasons were spent in the 1st Division before another relegation in 1996/97 back into the 2nd Division where they’ve remained since.
After Billy’s reign the club struggled to find its identity and with funds really tight they struggled to compete and although 3 or 4 managers took over, the club found itself in a perilous position 1999/00 when without the intervention of the current manager Tony Ainley the club was in grave danger of going out of business.
Tony’s reign started with no players and no money and although his first two seasons were really about survival the club was once again safely settled in the Northern League.
Over the last 4 or 5 years the club has undertaken major changes and the hard Work was rewarded when after a fantastic run defeating 4 1st Division sides on the way the club found itself in the final of the Prestigious Durham Challenge Cup and after being second best for long spells against a very good Billingham Synthonia side, two late goals from Kenny Boyle and Ian Robson snatched Whickham an amazing victory.
The Following season we followed the capture of the DCC by winning the newly named Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup (2nd Division Cup) by defeating Penrith in an exciting Penalty Shoot out. In our defence of the DCC we also reached the Semi Final of last years DCC before losing a close game away at Chester le Street.
Last season we made yet more changes off the field with former Northern and Football league official Paul Nicholson taking over as the Clubs secretary, John Farrey taking over as Treasurer and Brian McCartney as our new Chairman.
On the management side we’re delighted our current management team of Terry Ritson still doubling up as our Sports Therapist and Tony’s Assistant Manager, as he also continues his role as Chairman of Redheugh Boys Club and Tony Dowson a teacher and level 3 FA Coach continues in his role as our 1st Team Coach and we believe we can continue to build on the giant strides we made last season.
As the club looks to the future our Under 17's had a fantastic season winning the Russell Foster under 17 Premier League by impressively remaining unbeaten throughout their league campaign, we hope they continue their impressive run as Under 18's this season. Having also introduced an under 8’s team into the club last season we'll be welcoming them back as Under 9's and we'll be introducing a second Under 9's side who have approached us from another club. We'll also be running an Under 21 team next season and we hope the Under 18's and Under 21's allow us to bring home grown talent through into the senior squad during this season.
The clubs past may be chequered and not without success but we believe on a very limited budget we’ve got this Football club running very much on the right lines and go into this season with continued optimism, we know our cup successes of the last two or Three seasons will take a lot of beating, but after last years solid and at times excellent league campaign that saw us occupying a Promotion spot for a lot of the season, only to fall away during the last month of the season we believe its in the league we have to try and continue to improve and hopefully build on last season and be pushing for a Promotion spot again. Easier said than done, especially on one of the leagues smallest playing budgets but with or without money we believe Whickham FC will continue to compete at the right end of the Table and continue to be seen as one of the leagues friendliest clubs, which is important to us.
Good Luck to all our Teams this season and hopefully we'll continue to enjoy some good games and results whilst looking to make even more friends in and around the Northern League.
