Gateshead F.C.
Gateshead Football Club is a professional football club based in Gateshead, England. The team compete in the National League North, the sixth tier of English football, and play at Gateshead International Stadium.
Established in 1977 after Gateshead United folded, the club are known as the “Tynesiders” or the “Heed”. There had been a Gateshead A.F.C. in the English Football League from 1930 to 1960, which had itself folded before Gateshead United had been established. The current incarnation of the club began life in the Northern Premier League, winning Premier Division titles in the 1982–83 and 1985–86 seasons. However they were relegated out of the Conference in 1984 and 1987. They secured promotion back into the Conference at the end of the 1989–90 season, though would remain there only until another relegation in 1998. The club were further relegated out of the Northern Premier League Premier Division in 2003. They won the First Division play-offs in 2004 and the Premier Division play-offs in 2008, before winning promotion out of the Conference North with a second-placed finish in 2008–09. Gateshead spent the next decade in the top-flight of English football’s non-League system, losing a play-off final in 2014, before they were demoted into the National League North in 2019 due to financial irregularities.
The original Gateshead club was formed in 1899 as South Shields Adelaide and became members of the Football League in 1919. In 1930 financial problems saw the club moved to Gateshead, where they adopted the name of their new town. However, the club was voted out of the Football League in 1960 and folded in 1973. History repeated itself as the South Shields club formed to replace the original one was also moved to Gateshead, becoming Gateshead United in 1974. However, they were dissolved at the end of the 1976–77 season. A new club was established, taking over from United in the Northern Premier League.[1] After three seasons in the bottom half of the table, they finished eleventh in 1980–81, also reaching the first round of the FA Cup for the first time, losing 1–0 at Lincoln City. The club finished fourth in the league the following season.
The 1982–83 season saw Gateshead win the Northern Premier League with a record points tally (100), scoring 114 goals in the process.[1] As a result, the club were promoted to the Alliance Premier League. After a sixteenth-place finish in their first season in the league, they finished second-from-bottom in 1984–85 and were relegated back to the Northern Premier League.[2] The club went on to win the Northern Premier League at the first attempt, earning an immediate return to the (now renamed) Football Conference. However, they lasted only one season in the Conference, and were relegated back to the Northern Premier League after finishing bottom of the table.
With the Northern Premier League having gained a second division, Gateshead became members of its Premier Division upon their return to the league. They finished eighteenth in 1987–88 and second-from-bottom the following season, but avoided relegation to Division One as no team was relegated to the league from the Football Conference. After this reprieve, the club went on to win the league in 1989–90 and were promoted back to the Football Conference.[2] The following seven seasons saw them in mid-table every season, but after finishing in the relegation zone in 1997–98, they returned to the Northern Premier League.[2]
After two top-five finishes following their return, Gateshead finished in mid-table in 2000–01 and 2001–02. Although they were relegated to Division One at the end of the 2002–03 season, a sixth-place finish in 2003–04 was sufficient to secure a return to the Premier Division due to the creation of the Conference North and South leading to many clubs leaving the Premier Division. A third-place finish in the Premier Division in 2007–08 saw the club qualify for the promotion play-offs, and after defeating Eastwood Town 4–0 in the semi-finals, they beat Buxton 2–0 in the final to earn promotion to the Conference North.[3]
