Murton A.F.C.
Murton A.F.C. (formerly known as Murton Colliery Welfare) is a football team based in Murton, County Durham in North East England who play in the Northern Alliance, which is at the 7th step (12th Tier of English football).
They play at Welfare Park, which has three stands (two covered standing area and one seated) with a capacity of about 4,000. The average attendance from season to season only stands at about 12 or 15 but the record attendance is 3,500 spectators for a Durham County Cup game against Spennymoor United in 1951 at .
Club History
Murton was founded in 1891 as Murton Colliery Welfare. They moved to Recreation Park from the Fatten Pasture ground in 1928. The clubs only success while playing at Fatten Pasture was winning the 1921-22 Monkwearmouth Cup.
In the first season at Recreation Park, Murton won the Wearside League and the Monkwearmouth Cup. They again won the Monkwearmouth Cup in the 1934-35 and 1935-36 seasons. And in the 1936-37 season Murton won the Wearside League Championship again.
After the Second World War, Murton joined the newly reformed North Eastern League but found it hard going with their best position being 13th out of 20 clubs. in the 1951-52 season they rejoined the Wearside League.
In 1958-59 they won Wearside League Cup. In 1959-60 they were Wearside League Champions for the third time, and the Ship Owners Cup.
The 1960’s saw Murton win the Monkwearmouth Cup in 1963-64 and The Ship Owners Cup in 1969-70. In 1970-71 Murton won three cup competitions - the Wearside League Cup, The Monkwearmouth Cup and The Ship Owners Cup.
During the 1970’s and 1980’s Murton often undertook summer tours playing teams in Jersey, Spain, USA and Germany. While friendships were developed with many clubs and towns that were visited none are as strong as the friendship built up with the German town of Baesweiler. Since then they have participated in a twinning arrangement with the club. The annual entertainment of the German guests once a year often proves to be one of the social highlights of the year for the club.
In the 1988-89 season Murton competed in the Northern League 2nd Division finishing 11th out of 20. The following season Murton became 2nd Division Champions.
In their first season in the 1st Division they finished 13th out of 20 teams and the next season finishing runner up on goal difference to Gretna F.C.. In the 1992-93 season Murton won the top cup competition in County Durham, the Durham Challenge Cup after beating Northern Premier League team Bishop Auckland.
Murton were relegated in 1997-98 having conceded 170 goals and scoring only 20. A committee that once boasted 21 members had depleted down to a few people and at the end of that season a decision was made to resign the club from the league unless more committee members were prepared to come along and help.
People did come on board and the club survived, then in the summer of 2000 a hole appeared in the pitch overnight. A collapsed culvert had caused water to erode the soil underneath the pitch causing part of the pitch to collapse in on itself. Murton received exposure in the National Press. And producers for a new BBC programme called Dream Lives made contact with the club to offer their assistance. Although unable to repair the hole, millions of viewers were entertained by the Club Chairman doing an assault course. The pitch was eventually repaired thanks to a grant from the Football Foundation and Murton returned home in October 2001 after playing their home games at Peterlee and Ryhope CA.
Murton began the next season looking only to improve upon the previous seasons points tally of 38 points. They achieved that target finishing with 42 points and also achieved the longest unbeaten run in the clubs history of 10 games. Despite the upturn of performances the Northern League Management Committee were inspecting grounds in the 2nd Division to check their suitability for membership.
Although the club had done it’s best prior to inspection to improve the appearance of the ground, substantial work could not be carried out until the season finished. Despite telling the Management Committee that the work would be carried out within days of the end of the season they still decided to recommend to clubs that Murton be relegated. Work was duly completed on the ground and the facilities and all clubs eligible to vote at the AGM were invited to inspect the facilities for themselves.
When the vote came Murton lost the motion 28-10 and were relegated.
The club then struggled with two consecutive second bottom finishes in the Premier Division before they were relegated (Murton were reprieved the first time with the resignation of Winlaton Hallgarth). On 11 April 2007 they played in their first Cup Final since winning the Durham Challenge Cup in the 1992/93 season. They took on Gillford Park from Carlisle and after conceding a late 1st half goal lost the final 1-0.
In the 2006/2007 season Murton finished runners up in the Pin Point Personnel Combination Cup losing out 1-0 to Gillford Park of Carlisle.
Current Squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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