A Short Pictorial History of Ashington Football Club.

Ashington's Football Club Tomorrow's History project was to reproduce a pictoral history of Ashington's long association with football and its famous characters. It included not only Bobby and Jackie Charlton, Jackie Milburn and Jimmy Adamson, but also the not so famous who left  Ashington to become professional footballers with many league clubs.  The project also included the ups and downs of Ashington Town Team itself.

The project was carried out by collecting and displaying as many photographs and pieces of memorabilia as possible from the past and present in the Clubhouse of Ashington Football Club.  The project began late in September 2001 and was completed in January 2002.  Various sources were used to obtain photographs including Ashington Library and the local newspapers.  After an appeal for material in the local newspaper some previously unseen photographs came to light.

As a result of completing our Tomorrow's History project we hope that schools and members of the public will visit the Club to spend some time looking at what a rich footballing heritage Ashington has.

ASHINGTON F.C. BECAME AFFILIATED...

Ashington F.C. became affiliated to the Northumberland Football Association for the first time in 1888 and became a Limited company in 1914.  After playing at various locations in the Town they settled in their present ground at Portland Park in 1909.  The Colliers playing in the black and white stripes competed in the Northern Football Alliance that was the Premier League in Northumberland at the time and, after being runners-up for three consecutive seasons, eventually won the League Title in 1914.

ASHINGTON FOOTBALL CLUB 1914. 

At the beginning of World War One the Team were promoted into the North Eastern League until 1921 when they were promoted to the Third Division North of the Football League.  Ashington first game in the Football League attracted 10,000 people and saw Dickinson give the Colliers a 1-0 victory.  But Ashington's Football League adventure lasted only 8 years during which the Club never finished above mid table and finished bottom in 1929.

HOWEVER THE F.A. CUP...

However the F.A. cup provided some notable highlights.  On 12 January 1924 the Team reached the First Round (Round Three today) and were drawn at home against First Division Aston Villa, but a crowd of 11,837 saw the Colliers lose 5-1.  Again in 1927 the F.A. Cup beckoned when Nottingham Forest were opponents but this time a crowd of 9,242 saw the Colliers bow out.  Unable to gain re-election to the Football League, Ashington returned to the North Eastern League and won the Cup in 1934 and 1940.

F.A. Cup magic returned in 1950 after the Colliers disposed of Third Division Halifax in the First Round.  A record crowd of 13,199 packed into Portland Park to see the Colliers take on Rochdale and at 2-1 down with seconds to go Gipper lunged at the ball which flew into the net but the euphoria soon died as the goal was disallowed and the Cup dream was over.

MOVING FROM THE NORTH EASTERN LEAGUE...

Moving from the North Eastern League in 1958 Ashington A.F.C. joined the Midland League for two seasons and were League runners up in 1958-59.  Then it was two seasons in the Northern Counties and back to the North Eastern League for two more seasons.  During the 1950s and 1960s Ashington dominated the local football scene winning the Northumberland Senior Cup on five occasions; 1950,1956,1957, 1962 and 1967.  The Club had only won the Senior Cup on three previous occasions; 1921, 1933 and 1939.

Ashington F.C. moved on again to the North Regional League and the Northern Premier League during the 1968-69 season.  The Premier League was intended to be the route back to Football League status, but after leading the table at Christmas the financial pressure finally told on the pitch and the Team had to drop out at the end of the season.

During this time the Club was forced to sell Portland Park but hoped for a new super stadium which never materialised.  Worse was to follow as Portalnd Park was used for greyhound racing, speedway and stock car racing and the Grandstand was destroyed by fire in 1971.  The changing rooms were situated in the Grandstand and until a new one was built the teams had to change at the YMCA on match days.

In 1970 Ashington F.C. stopped wandering through the leagues and joined the Northern League, however, this League introduced a second division in 1982-83 and after two seasons the Team lost their first division status and fell to the second division in which it is still a member in 2001-02.

Possibly Ashington F.C.'s greatest feat was in reaching the semi-final of the F.A. Amateur Cup in 1974, losing 0-3 in a replay to Bishops Stortford after drawing 0-0 at Roker park Sunderland, a match they should have won.