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A SHORT CLUB HISTORY [playing record])
The real history of Gornal Athletic is hidden in the depths of time it is known that a team called Gornal Wood Excelsior was playing friendlies in the 1890s and this may well be the fore-runner of the present club. However, in its present format the club was re-established as Lower Gornal Athletic in 1945 following the return of many young men from the Second World War. The team joined the Worcestershire Combination League and for for the next decade the team usually finished mid-table. Perhaps the two most notable seasons in this period were 1952/53 and 1954/55.
In 1952/53 the team scored an amazing 106 goals in their 34 league games but only finished in 11th place. This was because as fast as they were scoring goals at one end, their defence was leaking goals a total of 102 like a sieve. This meant that throughout the season there were an average of over 6 goals a game!
Two years later 1954/55 the team had a nightmare season which saw them win just four matches, concede 111 goals and finish bottom of the league.
In 1963 the team joined the West Midlands (Regional) League which was previously known as the Birmingham & District League. In their second season in this league the club enjoyed its best ever performance, finishing in fourth place behind Kidderminster Harriers. The following year (1965/66) the team entered the FA Cup for the first time but were 2-4 losers in the 1st Qualifying Round away to Worcester City. It was during this season that Gornal Athletic received its highest ever transfer fee of £2100 when George Andrews and Gary Bell moved to Cardiff City.
Unfortunately, from this point there was a steady decline in the fortunes of the club. Indeed, it could not get worse than the season of 1973/74 when the club failed to win a single cup or league match. It finished the league programme with just 6 points and a goal difference of 66. The team crashed out of the FA Cup, losing 0-5 to Lye Town (after a replay), and lost to Dudley Town by a single goal in the FA Trophy.
The team finished bottom of the league again in 1978/79 and this time they were relegated from the Premier League to Division 1 where they fared little better in the first season, finishing 21st out of 22 teams. Slowly, however, they managed to redeem themselves and after two top five finishes in the preceding seasons they finally won promotion back to the Premier Division in 1993/94 by finishing second to Stafford Town.
After a series of mid-table finishes to their league programmes in the next few years, however, the sides performances tailed off and for three seasons the team flirted with relegation before 2002/03 the seemingly inevitable happened and a dismal record of 7 wins and 7 draws meant that the bottom spot in the league was reserved for Gornal Athletic as was a place in Division 1 (South) for the current season.
Whilst the First Team has caused nothing by heartache over the last few years, elsewhere within the club there have been welcome successes. In addition to the First Team, a Youth Team and an Under 18 side, the club has some 16 junior sides from Under 7s to Under 16s. The Youth team, after two very successful seasons in the West Midlands (Regional) Youth League, has now moved up to the Midland Floodlit Youth League Western Division whilst a second Under 18 side has been formed to take over their spot in the West Midlands competition.
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