FA Vase | That FA Vase win 40 years ago…

This weekend we face Willington away in the First Qualifying round of the FA Vase and with the 40th anniversary of our FA Vase victory coming up, we thought we’d take you back to the day of the final and reminisce on the last time the FA Vase was brought back up to Whickham.

This season will mark the 40th anniversary of Whickham FC’s last ever FA Vase win, so we decided to look reflect on one of the proudest days in the Whickham community.

After scraping to defeat Windsor & Eton in the semi-finals, The Lang Jacks set off on the long trip down to the Old Wembley to play Wilenhall FC with around 5,000 Whickham supporters also heading to London to cheer the lads on.

Whickham FC supporter Graham Laidler recalls his memories from the trip down to the final:

“I was 11 and got the specifically chartered train to London.. it seemed to stop every five minutes and took an age to get there. It was chucking it down on Wembley way as we went in”.

The rain would seemingly capture the mood of the 5,000 travelling supporters as Whickham fell 2-0 behind after 10 minutes.

Alan Scott pulled a goal back for the North Eastern side before Ronnie Williamson scored the equaliser to send the match to extra time before Billy Cawthra completed a dramatic comeback when he broke away before seeing his shot deflect into the net and send the fans into utter elation.

This cup victory was the last honour to be won by a North Eastern side at the Old Wembley.

So the heroes from that day returned home with the trophy, expecting few people to turn up and celebrate the cup win but to their surprise hundreds upon hundreds turned up to enjoy the occasion.

Graham also spoke about the parade saying that he remembers that “The Glebe club was rammed and the doors were locked.. people were passing flags through the letterbox to get autographs”.