Whickham Football Club are an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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

Whickham Whickham is a village in Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. The village is on high ground overlooking the River Tyne and south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It was formerly governed under the histo ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, playing in the Northern League Division One in the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

. They won 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 1981. The team plays its home matches at the Glebe Sports Ground, Rose Avenue, Whickham.

History

Founded in 1944 as Axwell Park Colliery Welfare, the club first started playing in the Derwent Valley League. In 1974, they joined 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 league champions in two seasons, 1977–78 and 1987–88. The year 1981 was one of the most successful years in the club's history, when they beat Willenhall Town 3–2 in the final, after going 0–2 down, to win the

. At the start of 1988–89, they moved up to the Northern League Division Two. The first season saw them finishing third in the league, and they were promoted to Division One. 1991–92 saw them

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

back to Division Two. In 1995, they were promoted again, as league champions, but after relegation in 1997, spent 20 seasons in Division Two, winning promotion back to Northern League 1 in 2017-18 By far the best run in the FA Cup for Whickham came during the 2003–04 season. In that season they won 3-0 at Garforth Town, 2-1 at Hebburn Town (in a replay), 2-1 at home to Armthorpe Welfare (again after a replay) before accumulating a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Chorley in the 2nd qualifying round. In their first season back in Northern League Division One in 2018–19, it was a difficult campaign for the Lang Jacks, who finished with just enough points to remain in the division. In the 2021-22 Season a slow start to the campaign was halted with the appointment of Tony Fawcett and some new faces to the squad and the resurgent Lang Jack's marched up the Northern League 1 table finishing in a club record 7th position.

Squad

Management

''Updated 1 November 2020.'' *Manager: Lee Haldane *Assistant Managers: Barrie Smith, Paul Wardle *Physio: Emily Robertson

Committee

Notable former players

*Matty Pattison, former Newcastle United, Norwich and South Africa International * Richard Brodie, currently coach at North West Counties League club Ashton Athletic *

David Rayner David Rayner (born 18 March 1982) is an association football player who represented New Zealand at international level. He represented New Zealand Under-17 at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship, appearing in all three group games. Rayner m ...

Now retired and runs his own sports business in New Zealand.

Honours

*Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup **Winners 2006–07 *

Durham Challenge Cup The Durham County Challenge Cup (commonly known as the Durham Challenge Cup) is an annual football competition held between the clubs of the Durham County Football Association which was first played in 1884. It is the senior county cup for the ...

**Winners 2005–06 *FA Vase **Winners 1980–81 *Wearside League Cup **Winners 1986–87 *Wearside League **Winners 1977–78 *Northern Combination **Winners 1969–70, 1972–73, 1973–74 *Northern Combination League Cup **Winners 1960–61, 1973–74 *Northern League Division Two **Champions 1994–95 *Vaux Challenge Cup **Winners 1986–87

Records

*Best league performance: 1st in

, 1977–78, 1987–88; 7th in Northern League Division 1, 2021-22; 1st in Northern League Division Two, 1994–95 *Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

performance: 2nd round qualifying, 1995–96, 2003–04 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: 1st round qualifying, 1990–91, 1991–92 *Best

performance: Winners 1980–81

External links

Official website
* {{Coord, 54, 56, 37.36, N, 1, 40, 48.84, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in Tyne and Wear Association football clubs established in 1944 1944 establishments in England Wearside Football League Northern Football League Mining association football teams in England