NEWCASTLE United may have collared the unwanted moniker of "crisis club" of the north-east, but their little Tyneside cousins Gateshead could still teach them a thing or two about turmoil.
A team was first formed in these parts in 1889, but the club has been forced to survive in a variety of guises after suffering the ignominy of being voted out of the Football League in 1959. Where there's a will there's a way, however, and the redo
ubtable Gateshead FC will make a rare foray into the spotlight this afternoon when they host Brentford in the first round of the FA Cup.
Gateshead haven't hosted a Football League team in the cup since they beat Crewe Alexandra, then lost after a replay to Rochdale 33 years ago, but today's tie allows them to revisit the proudest moment in the club's history – when they beat Liverpool 1-0 in the 1953 third round, with the winning goal scored by a Scot, Ian Winters.
The inside forward, born in Bridge of Weir, may have had a fairly unremarkable football career, counting Earswick, York City and Workington amongst his other clubs, but the FA Cup made a hero out of him.
In what would be his final season in the black and white of Gateshead, Winters not only toppled Liverpool, but then scored the only goal of the game at Plymouth in the fifth round to take them two games from Wembley. A Nat Lofthouse goal for eventual cup winners Bolton Wanderers ended Gateshead's gallant dream at their packed former home, Redheugh Park.
Winters' name sits comfortably in the history books alongside a long procession of compatriots, who have always found Gateshead a welcome haven for Scots. Internationalists George Aitken, Bobby Mitchell and Wembley Wizard Hughie Gallacher saw out twilight passages of their careers playing for the side colourfully nicknamed in Geordie-speak "The Heed".
Other Scots to play for Gateshead included inside forward Bob Kennedy, who scored 53 goals in 134 matches for the club between 1930-4 and Willie Buchan, who had been Celtic's match-winner in the 1937 Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen.
It is Gallacher, though, who is best remembered. The diminutive centre forward scored an incredible 23 goals in 20 games for Scotland, 133 goals in 160 games with Newcastle, and after spells at Chelsea and Derby, Gateshead were honoured to provide the final flourish to his career. Tragically, after retirement he also perished in the town, taking his own life at the age of 54 in front of a train after a domestic incident had spiralled fatally out of control.
Eight-times capped Aitken won two League Cup medals with East Fife, arrived in Gateshead via Third Lanark and Sunderland, and played in the club's last full season as a Football League side, the ill-fated 1959-60 season.
Older Gateshead supporters bristle to this day at the injustice of the decision, which saw their side – third bottom in the old Fourth Division – refused re-election and controversially replaced by Peterborough United. "The club were managed by a Scot, Charlie Ferguson, on the day they were told they were not getting back into the league," recalls club historian Ernie Curry. "They even tried to get into the Scottish League and failed, and it was a real bodyblow to the club."
Soon Mitchell arrived as player-manager and enjoyed success in non-league football, and it is there that Gateshead have remained since, although the club's future is brimming with promise.
Former Sunderland vice-chairman Graham Wood has helped give the club purpose again. They are now operating just one tier away from the Football League in the Conference, hope to turn full-time next season, and plans are in place for a new stadium.
Alas there will be no Scots in their ranks this afternoon, although Frenchman Armand One – the former Partick and Livingston striker – stirs interest north of the Border. But if the club embarks on another FA Cup odyssey as they did in 1953, they can surely count on some surrogate supporters in the land of some of their finest former players.
