Woodlands Wellington FC

Woodlands Wellington Football Club was a professional football club based in Woodlands, Singapore which played in the S.League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club took part in S.League from 1996 to 2014. They are at the 4,300 seater Woodlands Stadium, where they have played since their establishment.

Woodlands Wellington
Full nameWoodlands Wellington Football Club
Nickname(s)The Northern Rams
Founded1988 (1988) (as Wellington Football Club)
1996 (1996) (as Woodlands Wellington FC)
Dissolved2014 (2014)
GroundWoodlands Stadium
Capacity4,300
LeagueS.League
2014S.League, 11th of 12

Woodlands Wellington FC's honours include winning the inaugural Singapore League Cup in 2007, defeating Sengkang Punggol FC 4–0 in the final. They also finished runners-up in the Singapore FA Cup in 1997, and also in the Singapore Cup in 2005 and 2008 and won the President's Centennial Cup in 1998, a cup competition organized by the Philippine Football Federation to celebrate the centennial of Philippine Independence by defeating Hong Kong Rangers 2–1 in the final in Bacolod.

Their best finish in the S-League came in the 1996 Tiger Beer Series where they were runners-up. They have also achieved 3rd place in 1997 and 2005.

As of 2014, Woodlands Wellington merge with Hougang United and Woodlands Wellington plays in Island Wide League which they plan to re-join the now revamp Singapore Premier League in the future.

History

Wellington Football Club (1988–1996)

Woodlands Wellington was founded as Wellington Football Club in 1988 as a splinter group of Delhi Juniors (a team of Singaporean football enthusiasts, dating back to the 1940s, that were among the pioneers of football in Singapore). The name stems from the Deptford Ground located on Wellington Road in Sembawang where the team started playing football in 1988.

In 1991, they participated in the Sembawang Group League and National Island-Wide League, winning as champions in both competitions and setting a national record by beating Seletar Football Club by a 27-goal margin. This was one of the biggest wins the club had ever achieved, as they beat their opponents 28 – 1 at the Woodlands Stadium on 17 November 1991. Amalar Louis scored a record 12 goals in that match.[1]

The following year, Wellington FC joined the Singapore National Football League in Division 2, from which they were promoted as champions in 1994. The following season they finished first in Division 1 (going unbeaten for 24 matches) and were runners-up in the FA Cup.[2]

Woodlands Wellington Football Club (1996–2014)
Woodlands Wellington 2012 First Team group photo

Wellington Football Club were selected as one of eight clubs to compete in the newly formed S.League in its inaugural season in 1996, prompting the club to adopt Woodlands Stadium as their home ground and to change their name to Woodlands Wellington Football Club.[3][4]

Following their admission to the S.League, Wellington's founder, R. Vengadasalam, was appointed as the Team Manager of Woodlands Wellington and Bandai were announced as a sponsor in their maiden season in the S.League.[5] Following this, they signed Jan Janostak, Joe Caleta and Ervin Boban, from the Malaysia Super League, as well as Singapore national players Borhan Abu Samah, Tamil Marren, Zakaria Awang, from England Notts County legend Darren Davis and Croatian goalkeeper Sandro Radun, who played for the Singapore FA in 1992. Woodlands Wellington played to capacity crowds, including their pre-season friendlies.[6]

Woodlands won the President's Centennial Cup in 1998, a cup competition organized by the Philippine Football Federation to celebrate the centennial of Philippine Independence, beating Sembawang Rangers 4–2 in the semi-final and Hong Kong Rangers 2–1 at the Negros Occidental Sports Complex in the final in Bacolod with both goals from Razali Ahmad.[7]

While they enjoyed a relatively successful period throughout the late nineties, Woodlands finished last in the 2001 S.League season, prompting them to sign Singapore internationals Zulkarnaen Zainal, Goh Tat Chuan and A. Siva Kumar.[8] The transfers of Goh and Siva Kumar were particularly controversial as Woodlands and Jurong were well-known rivals in the league.

Woodlands Wellington made the headlines in the 2007 S.League season for a walkout by the entire Woodlands squad in a match against Tampines Rovers as a protest to the decisions made against them by referee P. Pandian. Woodlands were fined $30,000 for the incident and had six points docked.[9] Tampines coach Vorawan Chitavanich was reported as saying "I spoke to their coach just a little while ago and he said that they acted on the instructions of their club chairman."[10]

Reported withdrawal from the S. League
The starting eleven for Woodlands Wellington on 2 May 2013 against Balestier Khalsa in the 2013 S.League.

A report by The New Paper on 22 November 2012 suggested that Woodlands may be in financial trouble and could be the second club to sit out the 2013 S.League after Gombak United has announced earlier that it would not be taking part in the league in 2013.[11] This sparked off a supporter-driven "Save Woodlands" awareness campaign on the same day.[12] The club held an open meeting with the supporters and press at Woodlands Stadium later that evening and quashed the report. Team manager, Matthew Tay, also said that the club was already preparing a pre-season tour of Malaysia, and that the club would be signing players and would also be aiming for a minimum 8th spot in the table this season.[13][14]

Merger with Hougang United

In November 2014, it was announced that Woodlands Wellington and Hougang United will merge for the 2015 season.[15][16]

The club now plays in Island Wide League. The club plans to re-join Top tier league back in the future.[17]

Supporters' Club

The supporters' club of Woodlands Wellington Football Club are known as The Black Sheep.[18] They can be seen at both home and away games dressed in the club's official colours of yellow and blue and are usually seated behind the Rams' dugout. Since its inception, The Black Sheep have been using the warcry "Never Surrender!" to rally their players on.[19][20]

Stadium
Woodlands Stadium's grass pitch

Woodlands Stadium is currently the home ground of Woodlands Wellington, and used mostly for football matches. Apart from being used for competitive matches, the pitch is also utilised by the club for their training sessions as well. The stadium capacity was upgraded to 4,300. This includes the 2,000 seater grandstand, the 1,000 seater semi-permanent stand opposite the grandstand and the 1,300 seater portable stands on each end of the pitch.


Woodlands Stadium is the only stadium in Singapore which has a MRT track overlooking the pitch.

Logo and mascot
  • Woodlands Wellington FC crest, 1996–2002
    Woodlands Wellington FC crest, 1996–2002
  • Woodlands Wellington's crest, 2003–2014
    Woodlands Wellington's crest, 2003–2014
  • Woodlands Wellington's Ram Mascot
    Woodlands Wellington's Ram Mascot

Colours

As Wellington Football Club, the team played in a white kit with purple and green trimmings. As soon as they were rebranded into the Woodlands Wellington Football Club in 1996, the Rams changed their home kit to all white with a narrow stripe of yellow and green down the middle.

In the ensuing years, yellow was employed as the main colour of choice for the home kit and this has become the traditional colour for the club.

The Woodlands Wellington team in their green third kit against Myanmar club, Kanbawza in the 2012 Singapore Cup on19 May 2012


Kit evolution
  • Home
1996 – 1997
Lotto
1998
Lotto
2001
Lotto
2002–2003
Lotto
2004
Lotto
2005
Kappa
2009
Umbro
2010
Umbro
2011
Mitre
2012
Acono
2013
Waga
  • Away
1996 – 1997
Lotto
1998
Lotto
1999
Lotto
2005
Kappa
2009
Umbro
2010
Umbro
2011
Mitre
2012
Acono
2013
Waga
  • Third / Special
2008*
Diadora
2009
Umbro
2012
Acono
2013
Waga

*The third kit for 2007 was used as the home kit of the 2008 season.

Continental record
Season Competition Round Club Home Away Position
1992–93 Asian Cup Winners' Cup First round Thailand Sinthana 1–1 4–1 2–5

Sponsors

Woodlands Wellington was sponsored by Bandai from 1996 to 1998,[21] after which it was sponsored by Sembcorp from 2001[22] to 2010. The club went without a sponsor from 2011 to 2012 before Singaporean equity company, ESW, took up the sponsorship of the Rams from March 2013.

The team is presently outfitted by Singaporean kit makers, Waga, for the 2013 season. Their previous kit sponsors include Lotto, Kappa, Diadora, Umbro, Mitre and Thai apparel makers, Acono.

Kit Sponsors
SeasonSponsor Name
1996–2004Lotto
2005Kappa
2006–2008Diadora
2009–2010Umbro
2011Mitre
2012Acono
2013Waga
2016Vonda
Main Sponsors
SeasonSponsor Name
1996–1998Bandai
1999–2000No Sponsor
2001–2010Sembcorp
2011–2012No Sponsor
2013–2016ESW






Youth academy

The youth academy of Woodlands is the Centre of Excellence, which develops promising young players and grooms them for the future.

Main article: Woodlands Wellington Centre of Excellence

Manager history

Honours

Domestic

Cup

International

Cup

  • President's Centennial Cup: 1
    • 1998

Reserves

Performance in domestic competitions
Season S.League Singapore Cup Singapore League Cup
Pos P W D L F A Pts
1996-1 2nd* 14824252026
1996-2 4th 14635292521
1997 3rd 161105352933
1998 9th 204610274118 Group stage
1999 9th 226412304422 Quarter-finals
2000 10th 224513193117 Semi-finals
2001 12th 335919406424 Group stage
2002 5th 331779754458 Group stage
2003 5th 33144–87654758 Semi-finals
2004 6th 2712411484940 Preliminary
2005 3rd 271557574450 Runners-up
2006 5th 301389604547 Third place
2007 7th 33101310475237* Semi-finals Winners
2008 8th 339816365235 Runners-up Preliminary
2009 15234831 Round of 16 Semi-finals
2010 12th 334722186019 Round of 16 Runners-up
2011 12th 333426229213 Round of 16 Preliminary
2012 13th 243516194414 Round of 16 Group stage
2013 5th 2710710454737 Round of 16 Semi-finals
2014 11th 275814225223 Preliminary Quarter-finals
  • The 1996 season of the S.League was split into two series. Tiger Beer Series winners Geylang United defeated Pioneer Series winners Singapore Armed Forces in the Championship playoff to clinch the S.League title.
  • 2003 saw the introduction of penalty shoot-outs if a match ended in a draw in regular time. Winners of penalty shoot-outs gained two points instead of one.
  • Woodlands Wellington deducted 6 points for abandoning a match on 5 September 2007.

Last updated on 15 May 2014

Records and statistics
Top 10 all-time appearances
Ramk Player Years Club appearances
1 Singapore Yazid Yasin 2004–2008,

2013–2014

 163
2 Singapore Sazali Salleh 2005–2008,

2010–2011

 158
3 Singapore Goh Tat Chuan 2002–2006 138
4 Morocco Abdelhadi Laakkad 2005–2010 129
5 South KoreaMoon Soon-ho 2011–2014 108
6 Singapore Goh Swee Swee 2011–2014 105
7 Singapore Azlan Alipah 2006–2011 89
8 Singapore Anaz Hadee 2008–2010 69
9 Singapore Armanizam Dolah 2012–2014 67
10 South Korea Jang Jo-yoon 2013–2014 64

Top 10 all-time scorers
Top 10 all-time scorers
Rank Player Club appearances Total goals
1 South KoreaMoon Soon-ho 108 38
2 Morocco Abdelhadi Laakkad 129 36
3 South Korea Jang Jo-yoon 64 25
4 Singapore Agu Casmir 34 17
5 Singapore Goh Swee Swee 105 10
6 England Daniel Hammond 57 9
South Korea Park Tae-won 41
8 Romania Lucian Dronca 41 6
Cameroon Essa Mvondo 28
10 Singapore Jamil Ali 31 5
  • Biggest Wins: 6–0 vs Gombak United (25 April 2002)
  • Heaviest Defeats: 8–1 vs DPMM (26 August 2014)
  • Youngest Goal scorers: Neil Vanu ~ 21 years 7 months 20 days old (On 31 March 2011 vs Étoile FC)
  • Oldest Goal scorers: Mohd Noor Ali ~ 35 years 3 months 21 days old (On 6 September 2010 vs Geylang United)

References
  1. "Seletar meets its Waterloo against Wellington – 28–1!", The Straits Times, 18 September 1991, Page 34
  2. "Wellington Div 1 Champ", The Straits Times, 19 June 1995, Page 29
  3. Malathi Das and Palakrishnan (1996), "S.League: the kick-off", Singapore Professional Football League Pte Ltd, p. 62
  4. "Wellington fires first shot in hiring top guns", The Straits Times, 23 July 1995, Page 31
  5. "Power Rangers to Woodlands' rescue", The Straits Times, 23 March 1996, Page 39
  6. "Woodlands pulling in the crowds in its friendlies", The Straits Times, 16 February 1996, Page 30
  7. "Philippines International Tournaments 1991–1998, President's Centennial Cup 1998". RSSSF.
  8. "Midfielder Zulkarnaen joins Woodlands", Today, 5 December 2001, Page 35
  9. "Woodlands pay the price for walk-out".
  10. "A sad day for Singapore football". Channel NewsAsia.
  11. Another S-League club to sit out?, Page 67, The New Paper, Thursday, 22 November 2012
  12. "Save Woodlands Campaign". Woodlands Wellington Football Club.
  13. "Woodlands to play next season". The New Paper. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014.
  14. "Tay assures supporters of Rams' participation in 2013 S.League, targets top 8 finish". Woodlands Wellington Football Club.
  15. Ong, Terence (4 November 2014). "Jaguars to sit out next S-League season, Rams to merge with Hougang". The Straits Times. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  16. Low, Lin Fhoong (5 November 2014). "Uncertainty over S-League's changes for 2015". Today. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  17. "Woodlands Wellington to return to the S.League? | Goal.com". goal.com.
  18. "The Black Sheep Facebook Page".
  19. "Fans of the mysteriously quiet Woodlands Wellington FC say "Never Surrender!"". Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  20. "The Black Sheep - Who Are They? on SLeague.com".
  21. Rams close to new deal, Today – Afternoon Edition, 27 March 2001, Page 30
  22. $700,000 windfall for Woodlands, The Straits Times, 12 June 2001, Page S4
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