history

It is thought that the first club to bear the name South Shields was formed in 1897. They were elected

to the 2nd Division of the Football League in 1919. They were relegated to the 3rd Division at the end of the 1927/28 season. They played for two more seasons as South Shields, the ground was then sold and the club was moved to Gateshead.

The club was reformed in 1936, gained admission to the North Eastern League and played at their old ground - Horsley Hill, until 1948 when they left and purchased Simonside Hall, which they then developed into one of the region's top non-league grounds.

The ground was fully terraced, had 700 seats and covered standing accomodation for a further 2,500. The total capacity was 25,000 with plenty of space for further expansion. Indeed the following 'gates' were recorded during their time there. In 1956/57 v Chesterfield in the first round of the F.A. Cup the attendance was 19,000. The following season they entertained York City in the 2nd round of the same competition in front of 20,000. In 1959/60 they played Peterborough Utd. in the Midland League in front of 12,000.

Shields then played in a number of different leagues until 1968/69 season they became founder members of the Northern Premier League. The team did reasonably well in this league and in 1973/74 progressed to the semi-final of the F.A. Trophy, just missing out on a trip to Wembley.

At the end of that season history repeated itself. The ground was sold for housing and the team moved to the International Stadium at Gateshead, renaming itself Gateshead once again. The town was again without a senior football team until ex-Shields director Martin Ford who had disagreed with the move and resigned from the board got together with a group of supporters and formed another team.

They played their home games at Jack Clarke Park, winning the Northern Alliance in their two seasons and moving on to the Wearside League. The ground which was council owned and not suitable for development, thwarted their ambitions to move to a higher grade of football. They also reached the quarter-final of the F.A. Vase during this period.

In 1992, after 17 years search, they at last negotiated to buy their present ground at Filtrona Park. They have refurbished the club house which has two heavily booked function suites, built an impressive new stand, new dressing rooms, and erected floodlights. In the 1994/95 season they were champions of the Wearside League and promoted to the Northern League. They were also finalists in the Durham Challenge Cup losing only after a replay to Spennymoor of the Unibond Northern Premier League in the final. The following season they gained promotion to the first division of the Northern League.