Stockton Town Football Club is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated ...

, England. They are currently members of the and play at Bishopton Road West, which has an overall capacity of 1,800, including 200 available seats. They are managed by former player Michael Dunwell, who retired from playing in 2014. The club are notable for reaching the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

in the 2017–18 season, where they finished as runners-up, after being defeated 1–0 by champions Thatcham Town. Their previous success includes four consecutive

Wearside Football League The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in northern England. It consists of three divisions which sits at steps 7 to 9 (or levels 11 to 13) of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Divi ...

titles between 2012 and 2016, two consecutive Wearside League Cup titles between 2014 and 2016, two consecutive Monkwearmouth Charity Cup titles between 2014 and 2016, as well as winning the Shipowners Charity Cup in the 2014–15 season. Their club badge, which includes their motto, "Fortitudo et Spes" (Latin for "Strength and Hope"), is

navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

and yellow, representing their traditional colours. The historic club nickname, "the Anchors", is taken from the Stockton coat of arms, representing the town's shipbuilding history during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

History

The club was initially formed in 1979 as Hartburn Juniors, entering a 5-a-side league in Middlesbrough to give youngsters an opportunity to play organised football. The club changed to their name to Stockton Town in 2003. For the 2009–10 season, a senior team was entered into the Teesside League Division Two and finished in fourth place in their first season. In the summer of 2010, the club applied for membership to the

Wearside League The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in northern England. It consists of three divisions which sits at steps 7 to 9 (or levels 11 to 13) of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Di ...

and were accepted for the 2010–11 season where they finished in tenth place. In the 2011–12 season, the club finished third in the league and lost in the final of the League Cup. The club won their first league title in the 2012–13 season, and repeated the feat in their following league campaign, finishing the season with a league record of 104 points. At the end of the 2014–15 season, the club applied for qualification for the

Northern League Division Two The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division O ...

. However, despite winning the league title for a third time, their application was withdrawn due to legal issues. In the 2015–16 season, the club won their fourth consecutive league title to gain promotion to Northern League. The following season, the club played their first ever

tie, beating Eccleshill United 2–0, before gaining their most famous victory to date, beating four-time winners,

Whitley Bay Whitley Bay is a seaside town in the North Tyneside borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It formerly governed as part of Northumberland and has been part of Tyne and Wear since 1974. It is part of the wider Tyneside built-up area, being around eas ...

, 2–0 in the next round. On 15 April, the club won 2–1 at Team Northumbria, to clinch the Division Two title and gain promotion to the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division ...

Division One. In only their second ever Northern League campaign, Stockton reached the final of the

2017–18 FA Vase The 2017–18 FA Vase was the 44th season of the FA Vase, an annual association football, football competition for teams playing below Step 4 of the English National League System. The competition was played with two qualifying rounds preceding ...

. They played Thatcham Town of the Hellenic League. The final, played at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, took place on 20 May, with Stockton narrowly losing by 1–0. Furthermore, that season's semi-final against

Marske United Marske United Football Club is a football club based in Marske-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mount Pleasant. History The club was established in 1956 by members of Marske Cricket Club.

, taking place on home turf and resulting in a 2–0 victory in Stockton's favour, saw the ground record broken, with an attendance of 3,300 (1,800 of Stockton). In the 2019–20 season, Stockton were leading the table by 13 points with eight games left to play. However, as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

ruled that the entire league would be expunged, with no sides in the league being promoted or relegated, thus denying Stockton promotion despite being top of the league. Representatives from the team and local

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Alex Cunningham Alexander Cunningham (born 1 May 1955) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton North since 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing since 2020. Born i ...

, protested against the movement though the ruling stayed in force. After the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season was curtailed for the second consecutive season, results from both seasons were combined, which resulted in Stockton Town being promoted to the eighth tier of English football, joining the newly formed Northern Premier League Division One East for the 2021–22 season. In their first season, Stockton reached the play-off final, but lost 2–1 to

. In the following

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, Stockton lost the play-off final on penalties to Long Eaton United.

Ground

In April 2008, the club moved to facilities at Bishopton Road West in

. These facilities were built in partnership with the

Football Foundation The Football Foundation is the United Kingdom's largest sports charity, channelling funding from the Premier League, The FA and the government (through Sport England) into transforming the landscape of grassroots sport in England. History Launc ...

, Stockton Sixth Form College and

Our Lady and St Bede Catholic Academy Our Lady and St Bede Catholic Academy (formerly Our Lady and St Bede RC School) is a coeducational secondary school located in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. Previously a voluntary aided school administered by Stockton-on-Tees Bo ...

. In total, the project cost approximately £1.4 million, with close to £200,000 spent on the drainage of the pitches and the remainder on the new building containing 6 new changing rooms, 2 changing rooms for officials, an educational room, a club room and a drama and dance studio. In July 2015, the club narrowly won approval from planners for expansion, at a cost of around £800,000. The plans, which had been recommended for approval by Stockton's planning officers, included fencing, flood lights, stands, dug outs, a turnstile, a changing block, a storage container and refreshments room. They had previously been given the green light a year previously to erect a 200-seat stand, floodlighting, artificial (3G) turf pitch, pay booth, changing facilities and toilet and refreshment areas. However, the expansion had met with a mixed response from residents, with 69 letters of objection submitted against 50 in support. A 105-signature petition of support was also submitted by the principal of Stockton Sixth Form college, insisting that students would benefit from the scheme.

Management team

As of 24 September 2022

Honours

Stockton Town's honours include: *

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Division One East **Play-off runners-up: 2021–22,

Division 1 **Promotion:

(combined results of two previously curtailed seasons) *

**Runners-up: 2017–18 *

Division 2 **Champions: 2016–17 * Northern League Ernest Armstrong Trophy **Runners-up: 2016–17 *

**Champions: 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 *Wearside League Cup **Champions: 2014–15, 2015–16 *Monkwearmouth Charity Cup **Champions: 2014–15, 2015–16 *Shipowners Charity Cup **Champions: 2014–15

References

External links