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 were at the 4,300 seater Woodlands Stadium, where they ha played since their establishment.
Woodlands Wellington's honours include winning the inaugural Singapore League Cup in 2007, defeating Sengkang Punggol 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. In 1998 they won the President's Centennial Cup, 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 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. Louis Amalorpavanathan scored a record 12 goals in that match."Seletar meets its Waterloo against Wellington – 28–1!", The Straits Times, 18 September 1991, Page 34
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."Wellington Div 1 Champ", The Straits Times, 19 June 1995, Page 29
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.Malathi Das and Palakrishnan (1996), "S.League: the kick-off", Singapore Professional Football League Pte Ltd, p. 62"Wellington fires first shot in hiring top guns", The Straits Times, 23 July 1995, Page 31
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."Power Rangers to Woodlands' rescue", The Straits Times, 23 March 1996, Page 39 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."Woodlands pulling in the crowds in its friendlies", The Straits Times, 16 February 1996, Page 30
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.
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."Midfielder Zulkarnaen joins Woodlands", Today, 5 December 2001, Page 35 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. 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."
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.Another S-League club to sit out?, Page 67, The New Paper, Thursday, 22 November 2012 This sparked off a supporter-driven "Save Woodlands" awareness campaign on the same day. 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.
Merger with Hougang United
In November 2014, it was announced that Woodlands Wellington and Hougang United would merge for the 2015 season. However, the move did not materialise.
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 began to work their way back into the S.League.
In 2017, Woodlands Wellington reportedly pulled out of IWL after one season.
Supporters The supporters' club of Woodlands Wellington Football Club were known as The Black Sheep. They were 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 war cry "Never Surrender!" to rally their players on.
Stadium Woodlands Stadium was the home ground of Woodlands Wellington, and used mostly for football matches. Apart from being used for competitive matches, the pitch was also utilised by the club for their training sessions. 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.
Sponsors Woodlands Wellington was sponsored by Bandai from 1996 to 1998, and Rams close to new deal, Today – Afternoon Edition, 27 March 2001, Page 30 Sembcorp from 2001$700,000 windfall for Woodlands, The Straits Times, 12 June 2001, Page S4 to 2010. The club went without a sponsor from 2011 to 2012, before Singaporean equity company ESW took up the sponsorship from March 2013. They were outfitted by Singaporean brand Waga for their 2013 season. Their previous kit sponsors include Lotto, Kappa, Diadora, Umbro, Mitre and Thai apparel Acono.
YearKit manufacturer Main sponsors1996–1998 Lotto Bandai1999–2000No sponsor2001–2004 Sembcorp2005 Kappa2006–2008 Diadora2009–2010 Umbro2011 MitreNo sponsor2012 Acono2013–2014 Waga ESW
Logo and 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 had become the traditional colour for the club.
Continental record Season Competition Round Club Home Away Position 1992–93 Asian Cup Winners' Cup First round Sinthana 1–1 4–1 2–5
Youth academy
Coaching 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 January 2005 – 30 June 2006) Jörg Steinebrunner (2006–08) Nenad Bacina (1 January – 31 December 2009) A. Shasi Kumar (1 January – 31 December 2010) R. Balasubramaniam (1 January 2011 – 12 January 2012) Salim Moin (13 January 2012 – 28 November 2013) Darren Stewart (14 January – 15 June 2014) Salim Moin (15 June 2014 – 31 December 2015)
Performance in domestic competitions Season S.League Singapore Cup Singapore League Cup Pos P W D L F A Pts 1996-12nd* 14 8 2 4 25 20 26 1996-2 4th 14 6 3 5 29 25 21 19973rd 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 20053rd 27 15 5 7 57 44 50Runners-up 2006 5th 30 13 8 9 60 45 47Third place 2007 7th 33 10 13 10 47 52 37* Semi-finalsWinners 2008 8th 33 9 8 16 36 52 35Runners-up Preliminary 2009 15 23 48 31 Round of 16 Semi-finals 2010 12th 33 4 7 22 18 60 19 Round of 16Runners-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 + Top 10 all-time appearances Rank 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 Agu Casmir 2002–2003, 2006 83 9 Anaz Hadee 2008–2010 69 10 Armanizam Dolah 2012–2014 67
Top 10 all-time scorers + Top 10 all-time scorers Rank Player Club appearances Total goals 1 Agu Casmir 83 55 2 Moon Soon-ho 108 38 3 Abdelhadi Laakkad 129 36 4 Jang Jo-yoon 64 25 5 Agu Casmir 34 17 6 Goh Swee Swee 105 10 7 Daniel Hammond 57 9 Park Tae-won 41 9 Lucian Dronca 41 6 Essa Mvondo 28
Honours + Type CompetitionTitles Seasons Cup Singapore League Cup 1 2007
Personal awards Domestic League Player of the Year Laakkad Abdelhadi (2006) Aleksandar Duric League Coach of the Year M. Karathu (2002)
League Top Scorer Laakkad Abdelhadi (2006) Moon Soon-Ho (2013)
Player of the century Staffan Stewart (2025)
References
External links Official club website