The Hare Is On The Move

Newton Aycliffe  0  South Shields  2

Friendly

Admission / Programme - £9 / No

Forty five days after a long stroll back along the A6 following the final game of the 2022-23 season, we’re back again, and this time, it all starts again with a Tuesday night trip up the A1.

I mean, I could have started on Saturday, but that had to be parked because of some pre-purchased tickets to Cheese-Fest in Staffordshire. Yes, that’s right, we went to a Cheese Festival, in Staffordshire, and had a marvellous day eating cheese and watching people like James Martin show us how to cook things involving cheese. It was very cheesy, but it wasn’t football, however I digress.

The close season seems to have gone by in a flash, no sooner was I wondering how to fill my Saturday’s and keep myself busy on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, info was starting to filter through about new constitutions, new clubs, new venues, and of course the steady trickle of pre-season games that may, or may not, actually happen.

So, one of the first decisions that was made was of course the make up of Steps 1 to 6, and generally speaking it was pretty easy to predict what was coming, especially in terms of the movement between Steps 5 and 4. The Northern League was a done deal, Newton Aycliffe won it and would be guaranteed a place in the First Division East of the Northern Premier League, as would Ashington who finished runners-up but beat Glossop North End in a play-off.

Ordinarily I would anticipate what was happening in the Northern League and get up to a game in April, but for a variety of reasons that didn’t happen this time around, so it was a case of seeing what was thrown up on the friendly front, and yes, a Tuesday night in Newton Aycliffe was the game of choice. Oh, and by the way, ground number 1700 for me, stick that on your Futbology App!

I’ve driven past Newton Aycliffe a few times, it’s basically a left turn at the roundabout for Darlington off the A1, and then a few minutes later it pops up on your left hand side. Travelling from North Sheffield as I did, it was all done in just over an hour and a half.

Interesting fact time, Newton Aycliffe was only founded in 1946, and came to being under the New Towns Act of 1946. Around 30,000 people now live in the town, and once upon a time Vic Reeves used to work in a factory in Newton Aycliffe. Thinking about it, there will be people living in Newton Aycliffe right now who are older than Newton Aycliffe itself, which is pretty weird isn’t it?

Anyway, I didn’t get to see an awful lot of the town, once off the main road that leads through to Durham, you wind your way through a housing estate that screams ‘New Town’ at you and right at the end sitting very close to the main A167 that you’d not long left, is the Sports Club where the football club plays.

I was early enough to grab a space in the car park, while in front of you is a smart clubhouse and the dressing rooms for the cricket and rugby clubs who play closest to the facilities. The football club is located down in the corner and as you would expect, has its own self-contained facilities. Fully enclosed, and lined with trees / hedges, you enter behind the North goal where the dressing rooms are to one side, and the tea bar / can bar on the other. Moving round in an anti-clockwise fashion you have a seated stand and a covered terrace on the West side of the ground, while both the South and East sides are open standing. It’s a tidy venue, and it obviously ticks the boxes for Step 4, with conversations being overheard about work being done over the close season to get the ground up to standard.

So what is the football club all about then? Well, as you would expect, they aren’t a club with 100+ years history, indeed, they were formed in 1965 but the earliest records I can find of them playing in senior football saw them enter the Wearside League in 1984. They stayed in the competition until March 1994 when they resigned from the league having played 20 games.

The club moved into the Durham Alliance having undergone a rebuilding process and it was success in this completion in 2008 that saw them successful in getting re-admitted to the Wearside League once again. They won the Wearside in their first season and for the start of the 2009-10 season they took up a place in the Second Division of the Northern League.

After a season of consolidation they went again, winning the Northern League’s second tier in 2010-11 and with it gaining promotion to Step 5. The first few seasons didn’t bear any fruit, but in 2021-22 they collected a fourth placed finish before winning the title last season after a close battle with Ashington.

Visiting South Shields were also newly promoted, having finally got out of the Northern Premier League and into the National League North. I remember writing a blog about South Shields following a visit in September 2017, and at the time I commented on the fact that as a then Northern Premier League First Division club, I fully expected them to get to the second tier in double quick time, but Covid and a couple of failed play-off attempts have seen that delayed longer than many would have expected.

I reckon about 500 or so rocked up to watch it, with a large number having travelled South down the A1, but to be fair in the first period the hosts put a decent showing and were worthy of being at least on a par with their lofty visitors by half time, but with the inevitable changes that came, the second half was a slightly different story.

Julio Arca’s side took the lead through Jordy Mongoy who netted from close, before Will McGowan scored a cracker from distance to seal a 2-0 victory. The hosts can feel positive though, they put a very solid shift in and showed signs that they could be a force this season. Let’s be honest though, promoted Northern League sides are certainly no mugs and recent history tells us that they typically have no issues adjusting to the higher level.

The journey back was very straightforward, back in the house by 11.15pm, we’ve started everyone, the hare is well and truly on the move!