Wallsend Boys Club is 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 ...

youth football club based in

Wallsend Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This f ...

North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered ...

. The club is well known for producing professional footballers; more than 65 players from the club have gone on to play professionally, some of them even playing for the England side. They also have an adult team that plays in the .

History

The club was founded in 1904 by the employees and directors of Swan Hunters Shipyard in order to provide recreational activities for the apprentices and young people in the area and initially specialised in

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

. The original club premises were a series of wooden huts on Station Road, erected by workers from the shipyard. A fire destroyed the original premises and work commenced on the current club building in 1964, which was opened on 16 December 1966. Club activities in the early days were mainly snooker,

trampolining Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more co ...

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

and football. Various fund raising activities were held, including a "pram push" across England and a 24-hour

relay race A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in running, oriente ...

from Wallsend to Edinburgh Castle and back. In 1975, the club opened seven days a week and formed a separate sub-committee for 11-a-side football. Over the years, the 11-a-side representative teams have won hundreds of trophies in local and national competitions. The club has gained a formidable reputation for the early development of many professional footballers. In 2008, the club was awarded the Freedom of the City of

, in recognition of what the deputy mayor called the club's "factory line of talent", and for its community work. In June 2011, the club opened its first football centre, prior to which they had to play on park and local authority pitches. The facility, for which negotiations began in 2006, which is situated next to Wallsend Sports Centre on Rheydt Avenue, has: *two senior size grass pitches, *five junior size grass pitches, *one mini-soccer size grass pitch, and *a changing pavilion. It was funded by grants of £850,000 from the Football Foundation, £150,000 from

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

and £301,000 from

North Tyneside Council North Tyneside Council is the local authority of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in Tyne and Wear and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of lo ...

with the club itself raising £114,000 towards the scheme. The Station Road headquarters of the club was demolished in the February and March 2012, following high winds in January which damaged one of the walls of the building.

Former players

Professional players to have played for the club include: * Elliott Anderson * Paul Baker * Steve Baker * Peter Beardsley *

Ian Bogie Ian Bogie (born 6 December 1967) is a former footballer, and former manager of Gateshead and Stockport County. He spent two decades as a professional player, from 1985 up until 2001 he was playing in the English Football League, where he made ...

Michael Bridges Michael Bridges (born 5 August 1978) is an English professional football manager and retired former player. As a player, he was a striker who notably played in the Premier League for Sunderland, Leeds United and Newcastle United, as well a ...

* Steve Bruce * Adam Campbell *

Michael Carrick Michael Carrick (born 28 July 1981) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently head coach of Middlesbrough. He is one of the most decorated English footballers of all time and is best known for his 12-year p ...

* Phil Cavener * Vince Chapman * Lee Clark * Leif Davis *

Tony Dinning Tony Dinning (born 12 April 1975) is an English former football midfielder who spent sixteen years of an eighteen-year career in the Football League, making 515 appearances in league and cup competitions. A former Newcastle United trainee, h ...

Robbie Elliott Robert James Elliott (born 25 December 1973) is an English football coach and former professional player, who is the strength coach for the United States U20 men's football team. As a player, he was a left-back and centre-half who notably p ...

Nicky Evans Nicky Evans (born 20 April 1979) is an English actor who is best known for playing the roles of Shane Maguire on Channel 4's hit comedy drama '' Shameless'' and Roy Glover on the ITV soap opera, ''Emmerdale''. He has also played roles in vari ...

Graham Fenton Graham Anthony Fenton (born 22 May 1974) is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is the current manager of Blyth Spartans. He played as a striker in the Premier League for Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Leice ...

* Fraser Forster * Damon Gray * Joe Grey * Ray Hankin *

Chris Hedworth Christopher Hedworth (born 5 January 1964) is an English retired football centre-half. During a career of ten years in the 1980s and 1990s, Hedworth played for various clubs in the north of England as a slender centre-half. His reputation at B ...

Rob Hindmarch Robert Hindmarch (27 April 1961 – 5 November 2002) was an English footballer who played as a central defender. Club career Hindmarch made his debut for Sunderland on 14 January 1978 against Leyton Orient in a 2–2 draw at Brisbane Road. In t ...

* Shaun Hutchinson * Russell Irving * Dan Jones *

Brian Laws Brian Laws (born 14 October 1961) is an English former professional footballer and manager. Playing as a defender, Laws made over 100 appearances for each of Burnley, Middlesbrough, and Nottingham Forest. In 1994, Laws became player-manager of ...

* Tony Lormor * Shaun Lowther *

Kevin McDonald Kevin Hamilton McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian actor, voice actor and comedian. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably th ...

* Neil McDonald *

Mark Maley Mark Maley (born 26 January 1981) is an English former footballer who played as a defender. Maley started his career with Sunderland and progressed through the youth system at the club. He was loaned out to lower-league sides Blackpool, Nort ...

* Lee Novak * Derrick Parker * Ben Pringle * Phil Ray * Barry Richardson *

David Robinson David Maurice Robinson (born August 6, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1989 to 2003, and minority owner of the Spurs. Nicknamed ...

* David Roche * Jack Roscamp * Tony Sealy * Thomas Shaftoe * Alan Shearer * Shola Shoretire *

Kevin Smith Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic book writer, author, YouTuber, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film '' Clerks'' (1994), which he wrote, directed, ...

* Michael Smith * Eric Steele * Paul Stephenson * Mick Tait * Paul Tait * Jeff Tate * Les Taylor * Steven Taylor * Alan Thompson *

Alan Waddle Alan Waddle (born 9 June 1954) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. Waddle began his career with Halifax Town, signing professional forms in October 1971. He made 22 League appearances and scored the crucial goal in the last ...

* Dean Walker * Mick Wardrobe * Ian Watson * Steve Watson * Alex Whitmore *

Tommy Widdrington Thomas Widdrington (born 1 October 1971) is an English former football player and manager who is manager of club Aldershot Town. As a midfielder, he made 372 appearances in the English Football League in a 15-year career, before spending fiv ...

Jeff Wrightson Jeffrey George "Jeff" Wrightson (born 18 May 1968) is an English former footballer who made 170 appearances in the Football League playing as a defender for Newcastle United and Preston North End. He went on to play for a number of non-Leagu ...

International representation

The club has had a representative at four of the nine

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

finals since 1986, with the two exceptions coming in 1994, when the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

did not qualify, and 2002. In 1986 and 1990 Peter Beardsley starred for England. In 1998 Alan Shearer was England captain.

made appearances for England in both the 2006 and 2010 tournaments. Fraser Forster was in the 2014 squad, as well as the

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

squad, but did not make an appearance in either tournament. Alan Thompson received one full cap for England in 2004, and Fraser Forster did the same in 2013 and went on to receive another five caps over the next three years, while numerous other former players have made youth or B international appearances.

References

External links

Club website
{{Authority control Youth football clubs in England Football clubs in Tyne and Wear Association football clubs established in 1938 Football academies in England Football clubs in England 1904 establishments in England Association football clubs established in 1904