Walsall Wood Football Club is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club based in

Walsall Wood Walsall Wood is a suburb split between both Brownhills and Aldridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. History In the late-18th century and early-19th century, the workers of Walsall Wood were primarily involved in ...

, near Walsall in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Ro ...

, England. The club's

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

compete in the , which sits at level 8 of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

. The team play their home games at Oak Park and are nicknamed "The Wood".

History

The club was formed in the early part of the 20th century, although the exact date is unknown, the earliest surviving records being from 1915. The club's original name was Walsall Wood Ebenezer Primitive Methodists, stemming from its affiliation with a local

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

chapel. It is from this that the team's former nickname derives.Official website
/ref> In the inter-war years they were considered amongst the strongest non-league teams in the region, and won the

Walsall Senior Cup The Walsall and District Football Association Senior Cup is an English football competition for clubs in and around Walsall, with the Final taking place at Walsall F.C.'s Bescot Stadium. The current holders are Chasetown, who won the 2013-14 comp ...

in 1923 and the Walsall Senior League in 1946 and 1947. The club joined the

Worcestershire Combination The Midland Football Combination was an English football league covering parts of the West Midlands. It comprised five divisions, a Premier Division, Divisions One and Two and two Reserves Divisions. The league was one of three official feeder le ...

in 1951, winning the championship at the very first attempt and finishing as runner-up five times in the next decade. In 1982 it merged with Walsall Sportsco; the new entity became known as Walsall Borough F.C. and continued to play in the Combination. The club re-adopted the Walsall Wood name in 1986. The Wood switched to the

Staffordshire Senior League The Midland Football League was a semi-professional football league in the English football league system. History The league was established as the Staffordshire Senior League in 1984, taking its clubs from Staffordshire and the areas immediat ...

for one season in 1992 before relocating once again to the

West Midlands (Regional) League The West Midlands (Regional) League is an English association football competition for semi-professional and amateur teams based in the West Midlands county, Shropshire, Worcestershire, southern Staffordshire and northern Herefordshire. It has ...

, starting in Division One but gaining promotion to the Premier Division at the first attempt. In 2000 the team finished in 21st place and were relegated, but an appeal to the FA saw them reinstated in the top flight. In 2006, due to a redrafting of the league boundaries, the Wood returned to the Midland Combination after 14 years of absence. Walsall Wood won the Midland Combination Premier Division in the 2012–13 season and secured promotion to the

Midland Football Alliance The Midland Football Alliance was an English association football league for semi-professional teams. It covered Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and also southern parts of Derbyshire and ...

, the highest level the club has competed at to date. During this season The Wood also progressed to the quarter-finals of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footb ...

before being knocked out in a replay away at Guernsey. At the end of the 2016–17 season, after four seasons at step 5, Walsall Wood suffered relegation to the Midland League Division One after management changes, and a sharp decline in performances led to the club finding itself involved in a relegation scrap. For the 2017–18 season Wood were managed by former

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is t ...

player Gary Birch. The season was one of the most successful seasons in the club's history. Walsall Wood won the MFL Division One title and the MFL League Cup, as well as losing on penalties in the

final. They were promoted to step 4 of the

National League System The National League System comprises the six levels of the English football league system immediately below the level of the English Football League. It comes under the jurisdiction of The Football Association. The National League System has a h ...

in the 2022–23 season, crowned as MFL Premier Division Champions, for the first time in the club's history. . In October 2023 Harry Harris departed the club after two years and the club appointed Ian Long as manager. In 2023–24, the club had its first ever season in the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

. Reaching the third round, they were drawn at home to

Coalville Town Coalville Town Football Club is a football club based in Coalville, Leicestershire, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Owen Street Sports Ground. History The club was established as Ravenstone Miners Athletic in 1926, ...

Badge

The club's badge incorporates the winding gear of a coal mine (symbolising the area's coalmining tradition), a cross (representing the club's original affiliation with a Methodist chapel), a castle, representing a castle which once stood in the area, and an

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

tree, symbolising the "Shire Oak", a former local landmark after which Oak Park is named. The club's motto is "Pro Bono Silvae" which is Latin for "for the good of the wood".

Ground

The Oak Park ground boasts a stand which dates from the 1930s, which the club claim is the only surviving stand of its type in England.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

visited the ground for its official opening. Over the last few years the ground has undergone a lot of renovations to bring it up to standard for step 5 football. Behind the far goal there is a memorial to the area's mining heritage, which lends the ground a very traditional feel. Oak Park was permanently renamed the John Sylvester Stadium from the 2023–24 season as a tribute to the club's former chairman who died during the previous season.

Club honours

*Midland Football League Premier Division **Winners 2022–23 *Worcestershire Combination/Midland Combination **Winners 1951–52, 2012–13 **Runners-up 1953–54, 1954–55, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1960–61 *Midland Combination League Cup **Runners-up 2012–13 *Walsall Senior Cup **Winners 1922–23 (joint), 1934–35 (joint), 1945–46, 1951–52, 1957–58, 1960–61 **Runners-up 1925–26, 1946–47, 1950–51, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1981–82 *Staffordshire FA Challenge Cup **Winners 1953–54 **Runners-up 1922–23, 1934–35 *

JW Hunt Cup The JW Hunt Cup is an annual charity football competition for teams based in the West Midlands area of England. The defending champions are Lye Town, who defeated Boldmere St. Michaels 2–1 in the 2021–22 final. History The JW Hunt Cup ...

**Runners-up 1932–33, 1948–49 *Wednesbury Charity Cup **Winners 2001–02, 2005–06 *

Midland Football League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History ...

Cup **Runners-up 2015–16 **Winners 2017-18

Club records

*Best league performance: Midlands League Premier Division Winners 2022–23 (Promoted to Northern Premier League) *Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

performance: 2nd qualifying round, 1988–89 *Best

performance: Semi-finals, 2020–21 *Best

performance: Third round, 2023–24

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 52, 37, 52.12, N, 1, 55, 46.41, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Midland Football Combination Association football clubs established in 1919 Sport in Walsall 1919 establishments in England Football clubs in the West Midlands (county) Midland Football League Articles containing video clips Staffordshire County League (South) Northern Premier League clubs