Football town in big transfer

Feb 16 2008 by Paul James, The Journal

ONE hundred and one years of history came to an end last night when Ashington Football Club played its last game at Portland Park.

Boxes upon boxes of memorabilia have been packed up, including photographs of a bygone age of football and shirts from the team’s glory days, for a future home.

The town will forever be in North East sporting folklore, not least for bringing Newcastle legend Jackie Milburn and his cousins, the 1966 World Cup winning Charlton brothers Bobby and Jackie, into the world.

One of our pictures in this week’s flashback gallery shows the Charlton brothers on their triumphant return home after the famous 4-2 win over Germany at Wembley.

Across town at Woodhorn Colliery Museum, the footballers will live on in an exhibition about the links between the pit and the beautiful game. Milburn, who turned out for the Colliers before signing for Newcastle, famously used to catch the bus from Ashington with the hordes of Magpie fans going to St James’s Park for the match.

These days the town is closely linked to the fortunes of the England test cricket team, whose fast bowler Steve Harmison – the Ashington Express – terrorises opposition batsmen.

Harmison once played at centre half for his home-town football team before choosing cricket instead.

Ashington moved into Portland Park in 1907 and the decades that followed saw league attendances pass the 10,000 mark. The ground was redeveloped to allow greyhound racing in the early 1940s, then in 1950 a record crowd of 13,199 watched Ashington play Rochdale in the FA Cup.

Now a supermarket is to be built there and the club is moving to Hirst Welfare.

Last night Seaham Red Star were the opponents for the last Arngrove Northern League first division encounter at Portland Park, where Jack Charlton played a testimonial after his retirement from the game.