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.
 | |||
| Full name | Woodlands Wellington Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Northern Rams | ||
| Founded | 1988 (as Wellington Football Club) 1996 (as Woodlands Wellington FC) | ||
| Dissolved | 2014 | ||
| Ground | Woodlands Stadium | ||
| Capacity | 4,300 | ||
| League | S.League | ||
| 2014 | S.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.
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)
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
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] However, the move did not materialised.[16]
In 2016, Woodlands formed teams to play in the Island Wide League (IWL) and Women's Premier League (WPL). After two years, they restarted their football operations, at least at the youth and grassroots level, as they begin to work their way back into the S.League.[17]
In 2017, Woodlands Wellington reportedly pulled out of IWL after one season.[18]
Women's Football
The women's team made the debut in the 2016 Women's Premier League, finishing sixth out of eleven teams.[19] They finished as runners-up for the FAS Women's Challenge Cup 2016 after losing 2–0 to Warriors FC at the National Stadium.[20]
In 2017, the women's team finishes as runners-up in the WPL.[21] They finished as second runners-up in the FAS Women's Challenge Cup after beating Winchester Isla FC 6–0.[22] The team shared the WPL Fair Play Award with Arion FA at the FAS Nite 2017.[23]
The team repeated their feat in 2017 by finishing as 2018 WPL runners-up[21] and second runners-up in the 2018 Women's Challenge Cup, beating Winchester Isla FC 5–0.[22] The team received the Fair Play Award at the FAS Nite 2018.[24]
Supporters' Club
The supporters' club of Woodlands Wellington Football Club are known as The Black Sheep.[25] 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.[26][27]
Stadium
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's crest, 2003–2014
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.
Kit evolution
- Home
        1996 – 1997 Lotto |    1998 Lotto |     2001 Lotto |    2002–2003 Lotto |  2004 Lotto |    2005 Kappa |     2006 Diadora |    2007 Diadora |
    2008 Diadora |    2009 Umbro |  2010 Umbro |    2011 Mitre |    2012 Acono |    2013 Waga |
- Away
  1996 – 1997 Lotto | 1998 Lotto |    1999 Lotto |    2005 Kappa |     2006 Diadora |     2007 Diadora |   2008 Diadora |    2009 Umbro |
 2010 Umbro |  2011 Mitre |    2012 Acono |   2013 Waga |
- Third / Special
   2006 Diadora | 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 |  Sinthana | 1–1 | 4–1 | 2–5 |
Sponsors
Woodlands Wellington was sponsored by Bandai from 1996 to 1998,[28] after which it was sponsored by Sembcorp from 2001[29] 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.
Youth academy
The youth academy of Woodlands is the Centre of Excellence, which develops promising young players and grooms them for the future.
Manager history
Steve Wicks (1996)- Dean Wheatley (1997–98)
V. Sivalingam (1999)
Ivan Raznevich (2000–01)
M. Karathu (2002–03)- Simon Clark (2003–04) – Player / Coach
- Maff Brown (2005)
Karim Bencherifa (1 Jan 2005 – 30 June 2006)
Jörg Steinebrunner (2006–08)- Nenad Bacina (1 Jan 2009 – 31 Dec 2009)
- A. Shasi Kumar (1 Jan 2010 – 31 Dec 2010)
- R. Balasubramaniam (1 Jan 2011 – 12 Jan 2012)
- Salim Moin (13 Jan 2012 – 28 Nov 2013)
Darren Stewart (14 Jan 2014 – 15 June 2014)- Salim Moin (15 June 2014 – 31 December 2014)
Honours
Domestic
Cup
- Singapore League Cup
- Champions (1): 2007
- Singapore Cup
International
Cup
- President's Centennial Cup: 1
- 1998
Reserves
Cup
- Singapore FA Cup
- Runners-up (1): 1997
Women's Football
League
- Women's Premier League
- Runners-up (2): 2017, 2018
Cup
- Women's Challenge Cup
- Runners-up (1): 2016
- Third-place (2): 2017, 2018
Performance in domestic competitions
| Season | S.League | Singapore Cup | Singapore League Cup | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |||
| 1996-1 | 2nd* | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 25 | 20 | 26 | ||
| 1996-2 | 4th | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 29 | 25 | 21 | ||
| 1997 | 3rd | 16 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 35 | 29 | 33 | ||
| 1998 | 9th | 20 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 27 | 41 | 18 | Group stage | |
| 1999 | 9th | 22 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 30 | 44 | 22 | Quarter-finals | |
| 2000 | 10th | 22 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 19 | 31 | 17 | Semi-finals | |
| 2001 | 12th | 33 | 5 | 9 | 19 | 40 | 64 | 24 | Group stage | |
| 2002 | 5th | 33 | 17 | 7 | 9 | 75 | 44 | 58 | Group stage | |
| 2003 | 5th | 33 | 14 | 4–8 | 7 | 65 | 47 | 58 | Semi-finals | |
| 2004 | 6th | 27 | 12 | 4 | 11 | 48 | 49 | 40 | Preliminary | |
| 2005 | 3rd | 27 | 15 | 5 | 7 | 57 | 44 | 50 | Runners-up | |
| 2006 | 5th | 30 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 60 | 45 | 47 | Third place | |
| 2007 | 7th | 33 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 47 | 52 | 37* | Semi-finals | Winners |
| 2008 | 8th | 33 | 9 | 8 | 16 | 36 | 52 | 35 | Runners-up | Preliminary |
| 2009 | 15 | 23 | 48 | 31 | Round of 16 | Semi-finals | ||||
| 2010 | 12th | 33 | 4 | 7 | 22 | 18 | 60 | 19 | Round of 16 | Runners-up |
| 2011 | 12th | 33 | 3 | 4 | 26 | 22 | 92 | 13 | Round of 16 | Preliminary |
| 2012 | 13th | 24 | 3 | 5 | 16 | 19 | 44 | 14 | Round of 16 | Group stage |
| 2013 | 5th | 27 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 45 | 47 | 37 | Round of 16 | Semi-finals |
| 2014 | 11th | 27 | 5 | 8 | 14 | 22 | 52 | 23 | 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
| Ramk | Player | Years | Club appearances |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Yazid Yasin | 2004–2008, 2013–2014 | 163 |
| 2 | Sazali Salleh | 2005–2008, 2010–2011 | 158 |
| 3 | Goh Tat Chuan | 2002–2006 | 138 |
| 4 |  Abdelhadi Laakkad | 2005–2010 | 129 |
| 5 |  Moon Soon-ho | 2011–2014 | 108 |
| 6 | Goh Swee Swee | 2011–2014 | 105 |
| 7 | Azlan Alipah | 2006–2011 | 89 |
| 8 | Anaz Hadee | 2008–2010 | 69 |
| 9 | Armanizam Dolah | 2012–2014 | 67 |
| 10 | Jang Jo-yoon | 2013–2014 | 64 |
Top 10 all-time scorers
| Rank | Player | Club appearances | Total goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moon Soon-ho | 108 | 38 |
| 2 | Abdelhadi Laakkad | 129 | 36 |
| 3 | Jang Jo-yoon | 64 | 25 |
| 4 | Agu Casmir | 34 | 17 |
| 5 | Goh Swee Swee | 105 | 10 |
| 6 |  Daniel Hammond | 57 | 9 |
| Park Tae-won | 41 | ||
| 8 |  Lucian Dronca | 41 | 6 |
 Essa Mvondo | 28 | ||
| 10 | 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)