Northern Premier League
Ashington competed in the first ever Northern Premier League (now Unibond League) in the 1968-69 season. Ashington went into the league after competing in the North Eastern League and finishing 5th the previous season. This was a big step for the Colliers with Chairman Bill Kell explaining how the town needed to be widely recognised and wanted some respect from the rest of the country.
He stated " The new league is going to do this town a lot of good. We are right out in the wilds at Ashington and I'm sure that many people consider we are Barbarians. It is far from the truth, we are quite gentlemanly. An it will be a good thing for rivals to discover this."
At the time Ashington were considering selling Portland Park to Ashington Urban District Council for £10,000. This deal did go through and from this sale, although 35 years later, resulted in several building plans for the Portland Park site of which none have succeeded.
Mr Kell also explained the cost the NPL season would incur stating "We know money will be needed. We reckon it is going to cost us £7,000 for players wages in the Premier League. We have dispensed the reserve side, in the Northern Alliance as a luxury - were going the whole way with this new competition. All our eggs in one basket as it were."
Manager Ken Prior knew the risks the club had taken applying to join the NPL but remained very confident that Ashington could compete. "The Premier League will make or break Ashington this season. We are hoping it will lift attendances, and if we don't have to compete with Newcastle our chances will be greatly improved. I have tried my best to produce new faces and a solid type of team. This fancy type of football looks good, but if it does not get results fans are soon unhappy. We have to please them"
Ashington were however left to rue the expense that the one season in the NPL left. Crippling debts almost brought an end to Ashington Football Club, but were still here and playing to this day. We did finish second bottom of the league but had some high points in the season beating local rivals Gateshead and South Shields at home and doing a double over now football league side Boston United.
As it were the league was too strong at the time with teams like Wigan Athletic, Macclesfield, Boston United, Bangor City and Altrincham. Three of these clubs now play in the Football League and the other, Bangor, play in the league of Wales. Wigan have had the best rise of them all now competing in the Premier League with a 25,000 all seater stadium with Ashington spiraling in the opposite direction. This season probably came too soon for Ashington, it was a big leap and it failed but it would be nice to go have some ambition and make a return to the 'higher' level of non league football.
P W D L F A PTS 1 Macclesfield Town 38 27 6 5 82 38 60 2 Wigan Athletic 38 18 12 8 59 41 48 3 Morecambe 38 16 14 8 64 37 46 4 Gainsborough Trinity 38 19 8 11 64 43 46 5 South Shields 38 19 8 11 78 56 46 6 Bangor City 38 18 9 11 102 64 45 7 Hyde United 38 16 10 12 71 65 42 8 Goole Town 38 15 10 13 80 78 40 9 Altrincham 38 14 10 14 69 52 38 10 Fleetwood 38 16 6 16 58 58 38 11 Gateshead 38 14 9 15 42 48 37 12 South Liverpool 38 12 13 13 56 66 37 13 Northwich Victoria 38 16 5 17 59 82 37 14 Boston United 38 14 8 16 59 65 36 15 Runcorn 38 12 11 15 59 63 35 16 Netherfield 38 12 4 22 51 69 28 17 Scarborough 38 9 10 19 49 68 28 18 Ashington 38 10 8 20 48 74 28 19 Chorley 38 8 9 21 46 75 25 20 Worksop Town 38 6 8 24 34 88 20
As a result of finishing third bottom Ashington were relegated to the Northern Alliance League.