Full name | Durham City Association Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The Citizens |
Founded | 1918 (Reformed in 1950) |
Ground | Belle View Park (Groundshare at Consett A.F.C.) |
Capacity | 4,000 |
Chairman | Olivier Bernard |
Manager | Oliver Hotchkiss |
League | Northern League Division Two |
2015–16 | Northern League Division One, 20th (relegated) |
Durham City Association Football Club is a football club based in Durham, England. The club currently plays in Division Two of the Northern League.
Durham City formed in 1918 and were admitted to Division Three North of the Football League in 1921. In 1928 they failed to gain re-election to the league and returned to playing in the North Eastern League, being replaced in the league by Carlisle United. The club was disbanded in 1938, but was reformed in 1950, at first playing in the Wearside League, before gaining admission to the Northern League in 1952.
They were Northern League champions in 1994 and again in 2008, gaining entry to the Northern Premier League First Division North. They won that division at the first attempt and were promoted to the Premier Division. However, at the start of the 2009–10 season the club was informed by the Football Conference that they would not be allowed to progress any further up the pyramid with their artificial surface, which led to their main sponsor pulling out a week before the season was due to start. The loss of income meant that almost all the club's players left, and they turned to a local sixth-form centre to fill the team. The scratch side lost their first 28 matches and were deducted 6 points for playing a suspended player under a false name. They finally recorded their first win and points of the season on 13 March 2010 with a 2–1 victory over FC United of Manchester, and followed that with a 4–3 win in their next match at home to Whitby Town, although this was not enough to prevent relegation back to First Division North, finishing the season with 0 points (after the six-point deduction).