Walker Celtic Football Club was a semi-professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne Walker is a residential suburb and electoral ward in the south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. History The place-name 'Walker' is first attested in 1242, where it appears as ''Waucre''. This means 'wall-car ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

The first reference to the club is from the 1896–97 season. The club first came to prominence in 1918–19 by winning the

Northumberland Senior Cup The Northumberland Senior Cup, officially named the Techflow Marine Senior Cup, is an annual football competition held between the clubs of the Northumberland Football Association which was first played in 1884. It is the senior county cup for ...

, the Tyne Charity Shield (jointly), and the Tynemouth Infirmary Cup, an unparalleled achievement for an amateur club. It joined the

North Eastern League The North Eastern League was an association football league for teams in the North East of England. The league was founded in 1906 and was initially successful, with teams defecting from the rival Northern Football Alliance to play. Although ...

Second Division in 1926, and was promoted to the top flight in 1930. In 1934–35, the club came 3rd overall, and won the medals for the best "non-reserve" club, only

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

reserves finishing higher. The club went one better the following season with a runner-up finish. In the 1937–38 season, the team reached the First Round Proper of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

for the only time. It held

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

to a 1–1 draw at home, in front of a record crowd of 5,060; left-winger Hiftie gave the home side a shock lead inside five minutes, and both right-half Watson and inside-right Rooney struck the bar, before a first-half equalizer completed the soring. The Tynesiders went down in the replay at

Valley Parade Valley Parade, currently known as University of Bradford Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is an all-seater association football, football stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The stadium was built in 1886 as the home of Manningham F.C. ...

by 11 goals to 3, Deakin scoring City's first three goals between the 16th and 26th minutes, although the goal of the match was Celtic right-back Cotterill's 40 yard free-kick to reduce the deficit to 4–1. In 1939, after nine consecutive seasons in the First Division, the club was expelled on a 9–7 committee vote, for demanding £10 expenses from

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

and Middlesbrough to fulfil fixtures - perhaps not coincidentally the League had also agreed to reduce the number of clubs from 20 to 18, but the club had been so cash-strapped it had resorted to a public appeal for donations to complete the season. It joined the Northern Alliance for 1939–40, but it did not play after the season.

Colours

The club wore red and green.

Ground

The club originally played on the Walker Road Ground, near St Anthony's. It moved to the Alkali Farm Ground before the 1920–21 season.

Honours

Second Division: 1929–30

Former players

1. Players that have played/managed in the Football League or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league).
2. Players with full international caps.
3. Players that hold a club record or have captained the club. * Jack Allen * James McClennon

External links

Walker Celtic
at the Football Club History Database

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in England Defunct football clubs in Tyne and Wear Association football clubs established in 1896 Association football clubs disestablished in 1940 1896 establishments in England 1940 disestablishments in England North Eastern League