History
In the beginning, the club played only friendly matches before joining the Northumberland League in 1901. The first recorded honour being a league success in 1901 followed by further victories in1905–06 and 1906–07. The club then joined the Northern Alliance, remaining there for six seasons winning the league in 1908–09 and 1912–13.
In 1913 the club moved upward joining the ranks of the semi professionals in the North Eastern League and remained there until it folded in 1958. The fierce competition meant that honours were few and far between, the league was however won in 1936–37 season and the league cup won in 1950 and again in 1955. After the demise of the North Eastern League the club tried their luck in the Midland League and Northern Counties League, both ending when the leagues folded. The early 1960s saw the revival of the North Eastern League with the club doing quite well. However the league suffered many problems and eventually folded for good.
The club was now at a loss for a suitable semi-professional league and in 1964 decided to turn amateur and join the ranks of the Northern League. During the 29 years the club were members their record was second to none, winning the Championship on 10 occasions and being runners up 5 times. However, a new regime at the club were keen to progress up the league pyramid and a successful push ended with promotion to the Northern Premier League in the 1993–94 season.
The clubs first ever season in the Northern Premier League was memorable, winning the First Division Championship and the Unifilla First Division League Cup. Since gaining promotion the club held its own in the Premier division, finishing 6th and 7th in its first two seasons as well as lifting the Presidents Cup defeating former Conference side Runcorn in the final.
In recent years the executive looked firstly to John Charlton followed by Paul Baker as team managers but these successive managers were without the required success demanded by the fans, and so the experienced Harry Dunn was appointed in October 2004 for a second time. In 2005–06 Harry Dunn and his assistant Graham Fenton continued creating a further notch in the Spartans history by winning the Northern Premier League Premier Division as well as the Northern Premier League Chairman’s Cup and the Peter Swailes Memorial Shield, and with it promotion to the Conference North. In their first season in the Conference North Blyth cemented themselves in the top half of the table whilst even enjoying a brief stint in 1st place. The season ended with Blyth narrowly missing out on a playoff position on the final day finishing 7th.
After an initial successful first season, Blyth found themselves at the opposite end of the table the season after. But some wins towards the end of the season including a 2–0 win against Champions Kettering Town saw Blyth preserve their Conference North status. The third season was a similar story with Blyth again struggling for much of the season but grabbing important wins towards the end of the season to avoid the drop. A relatively comfortable 15th place finish did not give much clue as to the frantic battle against relegation which had preceded it.
After two successful campaigns to preserve Conference North status the end of the 2008–09 season saw the end of Harry Dunn’s second spell at Croft Park. No time was wasted in appointing his successor and on 9 May former Hartlepool United, Darlington & Sheffield United Reserves Manager Mick Tait took up the post for his second spell in charge at Croft Park.
Blyth Spartans announced on December 14 2011 manager Steve Cuggy left the club with immediate effect after an amicable agreement was made between Cuggy and the Spartans board. Cuggy took over from Mick Tait in May 2011.
Read more about this topic: Blyth Spartans A.F.C.
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