Seaham Red Star

Seaham Red Star is a non-league football club that hails from the former colliery town just south of Sunderland on the North East coast. They were formed in 1973 as Seaham Colliery Welfare Red Star, playing local Sunday football before switching to the Northern Alliance a year later.

The side fared well and progressed to the Wearside League in 1979 as Tommy Henderson led the scoring, with a young Bobby Davison playing up front before starting his excellent Football League career, becoming champions in 1981-82 under manager Larry Phillips. 

Red Star were elected to Division Two of the Northern League in 1983-84 when Nigel Gleghorn played for the side before moving to Ipswich Town in 1985 before the club chose their present name in 1987.

The town had previously been represented by various other clubs at one time or another: Seaham Colliery Welfare, Seaham Harbour, Seaham United and Seaham White Star. Red Star were named after the pub where they were formed.

The change of titles obviously gave them some luck, as Red Star were promoted to Division One in 1987-88. Goalkeeper Steve Harper was signed by Newcastle United before a third-place finish was achieved in 1993-94 before going one better with a runners-up berth in 1999-00.

The 2001-02 campaign saw Red Star relegated, and with dwindling committee support the club was close to resigning from the league until a new chairman and new committee was formed with the help of local enthusiasm.

Neil Hixon was appointed as manager, almost taking the side straight back up before Peter Mulcaster steadied a potentially precarious situation the season after. Hixon returned in 2005 before Stuart Godden took over as manager a year later leading to the 2006-07 which campaign saw Red Star promoted back to Division One. 

Stuart Godden took over as manager a year later before he was replaced by Andy Toman after the side went back down in 2009-10. In 2010-11 and the following season the team narrowly escaped relegation to the Wearside League.

Mark Collingwood and Simon Johnson arrived as joint booses from Hebburn Reyrolle taking many of their side with them. They narrowly missed out on promotion in 2013-14 before they lifted the Division Two title in 2014-15. In the early stages of the 2016-17 season, the duo of Chris McCabe and Paul Johnson were given the managerial reins.

Collingwood returned for a second spell in charge of team affairs in 2018 settling the ship and then going on to break the record for the number of games as manager of Red Star, which included steering the side to tenth place in 2021-22.

Seaham Red Star FC will play in the Northern League Division One in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Seaham Red Star 0 Scarborough Athletic 3 (Saturday 4th September 2010) FA Vase Preliminary Round (att: 194)

It was a case of Wembley to Seaham for me, as the previous evening I watched England’s demolition of Bulgaria in the European Championship Qualifier with my pals Sharpy and Guy. They stayed at my place which is probably as well given the rather ample pub crawl we’d enjoyed. 

The following morning the lads treated me to the taxi ride down to Kings Cross as the inevitable engineering works were taking place on the Jubilee line over the weekend. After a Subway sarnie, I was soon asleep on the train and woke up near Durham. It was a glorious day as I alighted at Newcastle Central and I was immediately gutted I wasn’t staying overnight. 

I really like northern cities and the thought of the nightlife, but I had committed myself to umpiring a cricket game the following day. I got aboard the train for the coast and sat with another couple of Seadogs who travel from Didcot to games! We had a good chat about the club and I was glad to hear they were of similar opinions regarding the need for unity. 

The game in Scarborough was split at the time, but they also appreciated the need for our club to concentrate on doing things right. We passed the International Stadium and the Stadium of Light before arriving at our destination. We set off walking up the hill out of the sparse town and past where the colliery used to be. 

My companions had to lug their case as they were going to Cardiff the following day for the 20/20 international between England and Pakistan the following day. We were relieved when we saw the car park with Seadogs enjoying the late summer sun with a beer outside the clubhouse.

Our hosts were hospitable enough before we walked up a bank through a nice park to the turnstile. The match programme was rather flimsy, but great value for only 50p. Admission was only £4 which was also most appreciated. The good value continued at the catering hut where for just £1.50 I purchased a pie and a Bovril. 

This really did highlight how ridiculous the prices are at our national stadium, where a foot-long hot dog costs £5.20! Seaham Town Park was a very neat and tidy venue. The main side had a seated stand, changing rooms and facilities as well as plenty of concrete and a grass bank for us to view the game from. The School End was open with flat standing. 

The Park Side had a cover for standing fans on the halfway line with the Stockton Road End having a mixture of terracing and grass banking. The ground was surrounded by high fences, which saved the club from severe vandalism as was a regular setback in previous years. The pitch had nearly as much sand on it as grass as well as some stones as we discovered as we cut across at full time. 

Boro played some nice football and took control although Red Star put up a tremendous fight. It was nice to see a much-improved performance from the Seadogs as the previous week they had gone out of the FA Cup with a poor performance at Chester le Street Town. Frank Belt put us one up with a great drive before the break. 

Ryan Blott added to this from the spot when the referee awarded a debatable penalty, maybe to make up for the one he could have given earlier? Bill Law rounded off the victory to send us back happy. Andy and Fred kindly dropped me off at the station before I took the train back to 'Toon' where I found The Mile Castle  Wetherspoons pub near the station. 

There was time to enjoy three fine pints of Brains SA Gold while talking to a London-based Oxford United fan, who was in the area for the Durham Beer Festival and the big derby in the area that day between South Shields and North Shields. I thought I was keen! I was soon on the train for another snooze. It had been a top two days in great company watching my teams win.