History
There has been a football club in Whitley Bay since 1896 founded by Liam Patrick Mattimore ex Brazilian Captain. The first team was known as Whitley and Monkseaton F.C, it was later renamed to Monkseaton FC and then again renamed to Whitley Bay Athletic in 1950, after many years in the minor leagues.
From 1950 until 1955, Whitley Bay Athletic were members of the Northern Alliance League, in which the club had a great run of success. During these five seasons they won the League Championship, the League Cup (twice), and in 1952–53 they became the first amateur team to win the Northumberland Senior Cup in sixty-years; beating North Shields in front of 17,000 fans inside St James' Park. In 1955 the club decided to join the powerful North-Eastern League which was wholly made up of professional sides and for three seasons Whitley Bay struggled at the foot of the table. In 1958 a limited company was formed, the Athletic dropped from the title and a successful application to the Northern League was accepted on 14 June 1958 by a winning vote of 11–3.
During the 1960s Whitley Bay became one of the best amateur clubs in the country. They won the Northern League title in 1964–65 and 1965–66, as well as the Northern League Cup in 1964–65. Whitley Bay also won the Northumberland Senior Cup six times in the space of 10 years, and they were also runners up on another occasion. It was in the Amateur cup, the predecessor of the FA Trophy, that they rose to national prominence; twice reaching the semi-finals and reaching the quarter-finals four times. The quarter-final in 1965 saw Whitley Bay play Hendon, which set a club ground record, when 7,301 supporters made their way into the stadium, only to be disappointed by the final outcome which saw Hendon winning the match 3–1. March 18, 1968 saw the birth of the floodlights at Hillheads Park, Whitley Bay's first fixture to be played under them was a friendly match against Newcastle United.
The early 1970s saw Whitley Bay's success continue with even more silverware: winning the League Cup in 1970–71, and the County Cup in 1970–71 and 1972–73. With the demise of amateur football, the club's fortunes took a nosedive, culminating in them having to re-apply to the League in 1979–80. During the beginning of the 1980s, the club slowly began to turn their troubles around and the board of directors decided to appoint former player Bobby Graham as the team-manager in 1986. After this appointment the team's performances gradually started to improve. During Bobby's first season in charge he achieved Whitley Bay's highest league position in 15 years, finishing 5th. The club also enjoyed their best ever F.A Trophy run, as they reached the round of the last-sixteen. Finally, to finish a memorable season in charge, Whitley Bay also won the Northumberland Senior Cup, beating Newcastle Blue Star 2–1 at Hillheads Park.
In 1987–88, Whitley Bay were looking likely to become champions of the Northern League for most of the campaign. Unfortunately a bad run of injuries halted Whitley Bay's chances and later prevented them from winning the league. With the club's progress and success increasing rapidly, an agreement was made, and the club decided to apply to join the H.F.S. Loans League. The application was successful
During the 1989–90 season, Whitley Bay recorded their best ever F.A. Challenge Cup run, when they got to the third-round proper, beating Scarborough and Preston North End, only to lose 1–0 to Rochdale.
They became champions of the Northern Premier League First Division in the 1990–91 season, gaining promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division it wasn't until three seasons after gaining promotion that they achieved their highest ever final league position of 11th in the 1993–94 season. In 1994–95, the club was relegated from the Northern Premier League Premier Division back to the Northern Premier League First Division. It wasn't until five years later that Whitley Bay's supporters witnessed their club being relegated again, this time to the Northern Football League in 1999–2000.
They went on to win the F.A. Vase in the 2001–02, 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. They are the only team to have won the F.A. Vase four times, and the first to win it three times in a row.
Read more about this topic: Whitley Bay F.C.
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“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)