Gateshead are used to problems piling upon problems, but this season was a special case. A failed takeover in May 2025 led to the chairman and vice-chairman leaving and sorry warnings from the club that they could not foresee how another year could be funded. Gateshead were barred from registering players until July and the manager had resigned.
The underlying issue: a home stadium that they do not own that is too big for them. The Gateshead International Stadium is between 90 and 95 per cent empty on a matchday. The club don’t have the money to sort that out or to move. The focus is always keeping the lights on.
With Alun Armstrong as the new manager, Gateshead actually started pretty well: three wins in their first five league games and 14th in the league on 1 October. Then they lost 4-0 to York City, 2-0 to Solihull Moors, 3-1 to Forest Green Rovers and the rot set in. And how.
The longest run of defeats in the history of English professional football stands at 18, set by Darwen in the Second Division in 1989-99.
Gateshead made 13 in the league but added three cup exits into the same equation. Armstrong left his position with former manager Rob Elliot replacing him, although Armstrong continued as head of football development. Elliot also lost his first five matches in charge.
“I was helping out anyway and I had a chat with the club and I knew it wasn’t right,” Elliot says.
“It wasn’t pretty for anyone. It just felt like all the moments were against us. When we lost to Brackley and we were X number of points behind, it seemed like all hope was gone.”
The relevant date is 17 February. At that point, Gateshead had taken 19 points from 29 league games and none from their last 39 available. They were marooned at the bottom of the National League table.
That night, they went to Halifax Town and won. Four days later, they went all the way to Truro City and won there too.
“After Brackley I said to the players that, for me, the mentality and the consistency of the performance were huge because the results will come if you nail down the performance,” Elliot says.
“And credit to them: the lads didn’t come away from it, they stuck to it and went and got two fantastic wins against Halifax and Truro.”
And then, just as they had kept on losing, Gateshead kept on winning.
It didn’t matter who they played or their league position. They beat York, Scunthorpe United and Halifax and drew with Carlisle United and Southend United; all of those are in the top eight.
Last weekend, Gateshead won 1-0 at Aldershot Town and confirmed their survival from relegation with two games remaining. It is hard to picture a turnaround so emphatic and astounding.
Since the day of the Halifax fixture, Gateshead have taken more points than any other team in the division and that followed a run of 16 straight losses. They took zero points from 13 league games and then 31 points from 15. You look through the annals and it is unprecedented.
“It has been a mad revival,” Elliot says.
“I think the scary thing is that they have done it at a canter really: three games to go and we didn’t even need to win to stay up. It probably hasn’t sunk in just quite what they have done. But it’s something we’re incredibly proud of.
“Also, if I’m being really honest, it’s the bare minimum I expect from them. I’m not saying we’ll always get 31 points from 15 games because that’s ‘winning the league’ form.
“But if the lads apply themselves, buy into the culture, the structure and the way we want to play, there’s so much more to come from the group. I don’t think they have maxed out what they are capable of.”
The club stepped up; Elliot is keen to point that out.
After the summer delays over transfer activity, they were able to move more quickly thereafter. Of the starting XI that won at Aldershot, seven arrived in January, February and March. Almost all were free transfers from a pool of those released by fellow National League clubs.
I joke to Elliot that he must wish that the season could carry on, given Gateshead’s form and the new mood around the place.
It’s fair to say that he sees it in a slightly different way. He’s knackered. The players are knackered.
This has been the longest three months of his life, he jokes. The manager has to absorb all of the pressure to let the players play. It’s tough. Everyone needs to spend some time around their loved ones.
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We end on an important point. Gateshead have been through a lot recently. The supporters have suffered, the small band of them who travel home and away more than the rest.
The problems haven’t gone away for good, even if the crisis has been averted. That is what must change now. Miracles are great, but you should never need them.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for everyone to sit down, look at where we were, where we now got to, and how we make sure we give the club the best opportunity to never ever get in that position again,” Elliot says.
“There’s nothing to say we won’t be pushing to stay up next year and fighting to stay up again, but we need to make sure on and off the pitch that we don’t get into the position of this season.
“It must be set up so that when the days happen that key people leave, the club keeps running smoothly. It’s been a brilliant ride, but we have to learn from the mistakes before it.”
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