Playing alongside South Shields, a club formed in 1936 to replace them when they had moved to Gateshead, they finished fourth in the League and won the League Cup in their first season.[1] They applied to rejoin the Football League, but received only three votes, well below the 32 received by Hartlepools United, the worst-placed Football League club.[2] Another attempt at the end of the 1961–62 season saw them receive four votes, again well short of re-entry.[13] In 1962 they switched to the North Regional League, which was largely composed of reserve teams of Football League clubs, and again put themselves forwards for the Football League elections at the end of the 1962–63 season, receiving four votes again.