South Shields The club was established in 1899 by Jack Inskip and was named South Shields Adelaide Athletic after the Adelaide Street area of the town where the founders were from. Success in their early years saw the club win the South Shields Junior Alliance, the 'A' Division of the South Shields Juvenile League, the Shields & District League in 1904–05 and then the Tyneside Junior League. In 1905 they were founders of the Tyneside League and were its inaugural champions. After retaining the title the following season, they were accepted into the
North Eastern League. The club were runners-up in their first season in the league. The following season saw them win the league title, after which they applied for Football League membership again, receiving a single vote. However, after finishing nineteenth in
1926–27, they ended the
following season bottom of the table and were relegated to the
Third Division North.
Gateshead In August 1930, Gateshead A.F.C. started a new era when 15,545 supporters watched them beat
Doncaster Rovers 2–1. In
1931–32 Gateshead missed out on promotion on goal average, finishing runners-up to
Lincoln City. With the club's performances in decline thereafter, they finished second-from-bottom in
1936–37 and were forced to seek re-election. However, they were easily re-elected, winning 34 votes to the 12 received by the most successful non-League club,
Shrewsbury Town. The club's fortunes improved after
World War II and they were runners-up again in
1949–50, but there was still only one promotion place. In the 1950s the club enjoyed some relatively successful
FA Cup runs; after reaching the fourth round in
1951–52 season, the
following season saw them reach the quarter-finals. The run included a third round win over
Liverpool, before wins over
Hull City and
Plymouth led to a quarter final match at home to
Bolton, During this time the club regularly included the brothers
Tom and
Jack Callender, whose combined appearances for Gateshead established a record for the most by two brothers at a single club. In 1958 the Football League was restructured, with the regional Third Divisions reorganised into
Division Three and
Division Four. A fourteenth-place finish in
1957–58 saw Gateshead placed in Division Four. In
1959–60 they finished in the bottom four of Division Four, forcing them to seek re-election. Despite not finishing bottom and having only had to face re-election on one previous occasion, the club received fewer votes than non-League
Peterborough United and were voted out of the league. Gateshead subsequently dropped into the
Northern Counties League, a newly-formed replacement for the North Eastern League (which later adopted the name of its predecessor). Playing alongside
South Shields, a club formed in 1936 to replace them when they had moved to Gateshead, they finished fourth in the League and won the League Cup in their first season. Further attempts in 1965 (four votes) and 1966 (one vote) were also unsuccessful. subsequently joined the
Midland League. However, after two seasons the club folded in 1973. History was repeated the following year as the new South Shields club was moved to Gateshead to become
Gateshead United.
Reserve team South Shields Adelaide Reserves were champions of the Shields and District League in 1905–06 and 1906–07, before joining the Tyneside League in 1908. They were runners-up in 1910–11, but left at the end of the 1911–12 season, but along with the other Football League reserve teams, they transferred to the
North Regional League in 1958. ==Ground==