The History of Blyth Town Football Club

Established in February 1995, Blyth Town Football Club started as a junior club with only 3 teams – under 10’s, under 11’s and under 13’s boys. In 1996 the club brought in the missing age group and expanded to 5 teams – under 10’s to under 14’s – again, all boys. Year after year thereafter the club has grew, taking the oldest team all the way through to under 18’s in the 2000/01 season.

In the meantime, in 1999 we established a girls’ section and again this section of the club has grown with each year. Girls’ football is a very new sport and Blyth Town have played a huge role in promoting the game within the region. This has proven to be a successful venture for the club and the girl’s section has gone from strength to strength.

The latest but biggest step for the club has been the introduction of adult football. Our first and oldest boy’s team became too old to play under the club’s banner – the lads left the club in the season 2001/02 and dispersed to play football within adult leagues. Although adult football was discussed at the time, due to the dramatic growth of the club it was felt that it could prove to be too large a step. However, as the girl’s section grew, it became clear that there was no suitable league in which we could enter our girls’ teams once they reached the age of 14, therefore, our older girls would have to be entered into a Ladies league.

The club decided that it would launch an adult section for the 2002/03 season – both men and ladies – and applied to the Wade Northern Alliance League for the men and the Northern Ladies League. All of the 2001/02 under 18’s boys’ team, once again, came together to play under our banner and in their very first season became Champions of the Northern Alliance second division. Our very young ladies team (average age of 14/15) finished 5th in their league, narrowly missing promotion. However, promotion was gained by the ladies in the 2003/04 season. We expanded our adult section season 04/05 with the addition of a ladies development team – running both ladies’ teams as one squad. This system worked very well for the Club, so much so that we implemented the same scenario for our men’s section, our under 18s and 19s of 04/05 were entered into the Tyneside Amateur League for 05/06 as our men’s development team. At the end of the 04/05 season and both our ladies and men’s first teams achieved their 2nd promotion. Our development men’s team has also been a tremendous success in their first season – League Champions, League Cup Winners and, the most impressively, finalists in the Minor Cup, which won by our first team in 03/04.

This season are running some 26 teams – under 6 boys to adult men and under 10 girls to ladies.

Throughout the club’s growth high standards have been maintained and because of this, and the fact that the club provides football from age 6 to adult, in December 2002 we received the accolade of ‘Community Club’ from the Football Association – the highest status achievable by a football Club and Blyth Town are proud to have been the first club in the County to receive this recognition.

Due to the above, we have been successful in attaining grant funding of just under £1M, jointly with the local authority, from development funds and the Football Foundation for the refurbishment and further development of South Newsham & South Beach playing fields. This will establish a home for the Club where we can continue to grow and our adult teams can progress through the league pyramid system. A facility where all our teams can train, play and even socialise in one location. We are also pursuing Northern League standard – Blyth Town are as ambitious as ever !