Willington Quay Saints

Formed in 2000 after a discussion between brothers Graham and Trevor Ford about creating a football team based at Grahams pub the Willington Quay Social Club a.k.a "The Morgue" We started in the South east Northumberland league in the 2000-01 season and stayed there for 2 seasons winning the League Challenge Cup in 2001-02. In 2002-03 when the league merged to become Tyneside Amateur League Division 2 we won the league and promotion to Division 1 also reaching 2 finals losing them both the north eastern amateur challenge shield to Killingworth YPC and the John Hampson Trophy to Felling greyhound Our first season in division 1 2003-4 we finished a steady 5th with Saints David Allan voted league player of the season that was followed by a poor season finishing 9th (04-05) however trevor ford was Joint top scorer in the league with 17 and Mark Henderson league player of the season. 2005-06 was our darkest moment as we finished rock bottom but we turned it round and in 2006-07 we finished narrowly second losing our last 4 games of the season to somehow lose the league title to Winlaton Vulcan and reached the minor cup final only to lose out 1-0 to Amble at Blue Flames. In 2007-08 we made the step up to the Northern Alliance 2nd division where we finished 13th of 16 in a difficult first season and reached the minor cup quarter finals, 2008-09 the saints vastly improved and finished a respectable 5th with Glen Gallon the leagues top scorer with a saints record 28 goals.

In 2009-10 our form dipped and we finished a lowly 13th of 16 losing 11 of our last 12 games. Sadly club founder Graham Ford passed away in February of 2010 and a charity game the first ever " Fordy Cup" took place in May of that year seeing the Saints over 30's take on an Under 30's side.

However we once again bounced back in 2010-11 and finished 7th after a difficult start, Glen Johnson breaking the club goalscoring record scoring 29 in a brilliant season as he moved from Centre half to centre forward, including 2 in our most famous win a 5-3 victory over our rivals Wallsend Town who were 3-1 up with 15 minutes left.. 2011-12 saw the saints finish 7th in division 2 again but this time it resulted in promotion to division 1 due to teams dropping out the league, we also reached the final of the Pin Point Recruitment Amateur Cup Final where we lost 2-1 to Whickham Lang Jacks and the semi final of the Minor cup were we agonisingly lost on penalties to Chemfica after a 3-3 draw. 2012-13 saw us in Northern Alliance Division 1 the highest tier of football we had ever been in where we struggled to finish 15th out of 16 despite 5 wins in the last 7 games, We survived relegation due to other teams folding but in the 2013-14 season we wernt so lucky and a last place finish saw us relegated to the 2nd division. Dropping down a league didnt affect our fortunes as we stumbled to an 11th place finish in the 14-15 season, brothers Mark and Carl Henderson reaching 400 appearances for the club in this period. A bottom placed finish in a nightmare 15-16 season saw us win just 2 league games all season the last in November as our 17 games without a win set a new club record but ,with a string of impressive youngsters joining late in the season the 2016-17 season went much better with the Saints finishing in 5th place recording an impressive 8 league wins in a row midway through the campaign under the new management team of Pete Donkin and Bob Forman, youngster Ross Thirlaway notching 17 goals in his first full season at the club.

Once again a good season was followed by a bad one as the Quay slumped to a 13th place position with Donkin resigning just after Christmas, Forman took over sole charge of the club but there was no improvement as the Quay lost 10 of their last 12 games. Joe Connor crashed in 24 goals despite his sides poor form.

There was debate about whether the team would continue for the 2018-19 season but after signing a host of new players the Saints started the new season on fire under the guidance of Forman. The fire burned out after a promising early start and Forman left with ex players Mark Henderson and Gareth Pugh taking joint charge of the side. The new managers had an immediate impact and the side went on a great run til the end of the season breaking several club records including most wins, most points and most goals in an Alliance season the Saints finishing in 6th place missing out on promotion by just 2 points. The 10th annual "Fordy Cup" took place after the season with the club raising a brilliant £10,000 for the British Heart Foundation through their Fordy Cup charity.

Henda and Pughs first season in charge saw the Saints in 3rd position and in a George Dobbins Cup final after an unbelievable run including a truly memorable win over Newcastle Blue Star in the 1st round only for the worldwide pandemic to appear with the league and cup final being declared null and void, a shortened season followed where we were once again in the top 5 before it was stopped short again and we narrowly missed out on promotion on points per game before blowing a couple of chances to reach cup finals.

Last season the promotion we had deserved was finally achieved after a 3rd placed finish saw us go into Division One where we will be looking to be highly competitive