Gateshead
Formed 1899. Wound up 1973.
Elected to Division Two 1919. Failed re-election 1960.
Kit History
South Shields Adelaide
1899
1904-1905 h
South Shields
1905
1905-1906 h
1908-1910 h j
1910-1912 h
1912-1913 h
1913-1920 a e j
1920-1922 e h
1922-1923 h
1923-1924 h
1925-1926 h
1927-1928 b h
1928-1929 j
1929-1930 e
Gateshead
1930
1930-1932 f h
1933-1935 d e
1935-1936 e
1937-circa1946 c e f
1946-1947 i
1951-1953 f j
circa1957-1959 f
1959-1960 g
Background
Although local press reports suggest that a South Shields FC existed in 1888, the club that concerns us here was formed by Jack Inskip in 1899 as South Shields Adelaide. They played in the Northern Alliance and were known as "The Laddies."
"Adelaide" was dropped from the club's title in 1905 by which time the original South Shields club and South Shields Athletic (formed 1897) had gone out of business. In 1908 South Shields joined the North Eastern League and in 1913 they applied to join the Football League but failed to attract a single vote.
In 1919 South Shields contested the Victory Shield along with Newcastle United, Sunderland and others. The attention received served them well and when Division Two was expanded and the Third Division formed, South Shields successfully applied for one of the vacant places in the Second Division with 28 votes.
Around 1925 the team changed from their red and green colours and started to play in blue and white.
After seven seasons finishing in mid-table, the club's fortunes began to slip and in 1928 they were relegated to Division Three (North).
A change of colours to claret and blue did not change their fortunes and in 1930, faced with mounting financial problems, the club sold off its Shields Horsley Hill Ground and moved lock, stock and barrel to Redheugh Park in Gateshead, changing their name in the process to Gateshead FC. The club continued to wear claret and blue until 1937, when they changed into plain white shirts with black shorts.
In their first season in their new home they almost won promotion but were denied by Lincoln City who had superior goal average. Thereafter, there was little to celebrate apart from a dramatic FA Cup run in 1953 that ended in a quarter-final defeat by Bolton, who themselves went on to reach Wembley. In 1959, Gateshead were placed in the new Fourth Division and then, to everyone's amazement, they were voted out of the League in favour of Peterborough United in 1960. The club had applied for re-election only once before and their sense of injustice was acute.
After an application to join the Scottish Football League was rebuffed, Gateshead competed in various regional leagues until 1968 when they became founder members of the Northern Premier League. Two years later they lost their place to another former League club, Bradford PA and in 1973, Gateshead was wound up.
The story does not end there, however. In 1936, a new South Shields FC had been formed. In 1968 they also helped form the Northern Premier League and played against Gateshead FC regularly. Then, in 1974, history repeated itself. With the old Gateshead club now defunct, South Shields sold their ground and moved into the International Athletics Stadium and adopted the name of Gateshead United. This club too met its demise in 1977. Folk in the North-East are fanatical about their football and despite the obvious problems of playing in the shadow of Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, both South Shields and Gateshead once again boast their own teams with the modern incarnation of Gateshead FC threatening to return to League football.
Sources
- (a) South Shields history
- (b) Club Colours (Bob Bickerton)
- (c) Football Focus
- (d) The Football Encyclopaedia (Associated Sporting Press 1934) - information provided by Arthur Fergus
- (e) Yore Publications books by G Thompson - information provided by Ralph Pomeroy
- (f) ISee Gateshead
- (g) Simon Monks
- (h) Keith Ellis (HFK Research Associate)
- (i) Christopher Worrall
- (j) Paul Robinson