History
Little is known of the club prior to 1926/27 when the club became a founder member in division 2 of the North Eastern League. Prior to this it was known the club did exist but mainly in playing friendlies against other local pits such as Usworth Colliery. A notable player from the early era was Ronnie Starling, who went on to captain Sheffield Wednesday to the FA Cup and won two caps for England.
The club won the Division 2 title in the 1927/28 season and were promoted to division one but didn't enjoy much success. This period however did produce their most famous son, Jimmy Hagan, who went on to represent England (winning one full international cap against Denmark in Copenhagen in 1948). He later managed the famous Benfica team that won three successive Portuguese championships between 1971 and 1973. He was also briefly manager of Sporting Lisbon during the 1976/77 season.
After the war the club were founded as Washington Colliery Mechanics and joined the Washington and District football league (known as the Durham Alliance league from 1996), with the club managing a great amount of success in the 1950s including winning the league title 5 years in a row, and the coveted Durham Trophy. The Colliery stayed in the league until 1964 when the moved to the Northern Alliance League. Their tenure in that league lasted only one year where then club secretary Billy Benson was successful in applying to become a member of the Wearside league under the name Washington F.C.. Their greatest moment was in 1970/71 reaching F.A Cup 4th qualifying round where they were defeated 3–0 by professional league team Bradford Park Avenue. Currently Washington play in the Northern league and are semi-professional with paid players.
In recent times the football club finds itself under financial hardship due in part to having its changing rooms burnt in an arson attack; and with league rules stating each team should provide suitable facilities for home and away teams they have had to rely on the help of teams in the two divisions of the Northern Football League until financial support is provided within the club. These problems caused the club to abandon its Albany Park home during the 2010/11 season and take up residence at the Nissan Sports Ground in Sunderland, the former home of Northern League rivals Sunderland Nissan, who folded in 2009.
Read more about this topic: Washington F.C.
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