Northern League day

[peasepud 59]

We play Villa on the 10th April and as a result have a free day on the 9th, theres a campaign to get people to go to Northern League games that day to try and help out as a number of clubs are in financial difficulties.

 

Ryton in particular are in danger of going to the wall at the end of the season.

 

Some info on the day:

 

http://northernleagueday.wordpress.com/

 

http://www.northernleague.org/index.php

 

 

Ryton are at home to Billingham Synthonia on that day and for a fiver you can help a struggling club out and take in some "proper" football while standing in a bus shelter.

 

It doesnt have to be Ryton though, theres sure to be a game close to you (as long as you live in the North East).

 

Tyneside/Northumberland clubs are:

Whitley Bay

Newcastle Benfield

Dunstin

Ryton

Jarrow Roofing

Ashington

West Allotment Celtic

South Shields

Bedlington Terriers (although they dont need the cash these days!)

North Shields

Team Northumbria (Play at Coach Lane, Benton)

Hebburn

Washington

Morpeth

 

 

Im heading along to Ryton which is going to be the centrepoint of the day with local football bloggers meeting up there for what theyve called Socrates Ryton, mayb e we should have a Toontastic get together, couple of pints and a different match.

[Kid Dynamite 6961]

Good luck with this. Not a proper Geordie if you support 2 teams apparently

 

Get yourself to Blyth, they have a home game on the 9th and need the money just as much as any other non league team. There's a decent gap in the standard of Northern League and Northern Conference too so chances are you will see a good game

[Guest]

Darlo have a premiership stadium to fund on a conference income - and a big cup game with Gateshead on Saturday, so a big local derby as well. Just go to that

Edited March 9, 2011 by AshleysSkidMark

[smoggeordie 0]

Will be at Darlo v Heed on Saturday.

 

Went to watch Billingham Town v Jarrow roofing the other week and they called it off 15 mins before kick off

[peasepud 59]

What has the Northern League got to do with Newcastle United? Well, if you care at all about the history of your football club, the answer to that is an awful lot. Every single great Newcastle team – including East and West End, who both started out as Northern League sides – has included at least one player who came from non-league football. Colin Veitch, captain of our first three title-winning sides and six times and FA Cup finalist, was spotted at Rutherford, who still turn out in the Northern Alliance. Stan Seymour, ‘Mr Newcastle United’ himself, was packed off to Shildon in the now-defunct North Eastern League as a young player and told to “come back when you grow up”. He eventually did, winning the 1924 FA Cup and, three years later, the First Division title in a black and white shirt. Bobby Cowell, a three-time FA Cup winner in the 1950s, came from Blackhall Colliery Welfare and Joe Harvey, his Wembley skipper and the last Newcastle manager to win a major trophy, from Edlington Rangers. Frank Clark, a full-back in the Fairs Cup winning side and later a European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest, made his first league appearances in the colours of Crook Town. Chris Waddle made sausage seasonings while playing on the wing for Tow Law. Peter Beardsley came from Wallsend Boys Club; Alan Shearer from Cramlington Juniors.

 

Doesn’t happen today? Our first-choice goalkeeper played a dozen Northern League games for Seaham Red Star and only last summer Michael Richardson, an 18-year-old midfielder who’s already made the first team bench, was turning out for Walker Central, a Northern Alliance club with aspirations of making it into the Northern League.

 

I was brought up a Newcastle fan. The first time I saw a team play in black and white stripes was at Hebburn Town Football Club, where each summer a Newcastle XI comprised of the semi-famous and complete unknowns would turn up to give a boost to the local club’s coffers. But when I was old enough to go to St James’ Park Northern League teams became little more than a footnote in the Sunday newspapers. I watched Newcastle Reserves at Murton and Bishop Auckland one year and very occasionally took in a match at South Shields or Jarrow Roofing, but my heart – and money – belonged to the team in the Premier League. I wrote for a fanzine, travelled home and away, and followed Newcastle from Rushden to Zagreb, from Kyiv to Barcelona.

 

Things changed. I got older, moved abroad. When I came back to England the tickets had got ridiculously expensive and I was out of the habit of going to football every week. Like an increasing number of other people nowadays, I got my football fix from TV or in the pub with my mates.

 

Last July, twenty-four hours after coming back to Newcastle from six months in Ukraine, I found myself sitting by the side of a football pitch, watching Horden Colliery Welfare take on another of those big club XIs (this time from Hartlepool United). There was a cricket match going on next door, a couple of kids were kicking a ball back and forth behind one of the goals, and the North Sea – I swear – looked almost cartoonishly blue behind the rows of red-brick houses. “I’ll have to do this again,” I thought. So I did.

 

In between then and now I’ve seen some wonderful games and some abysmal ones, watched teams kick and rush and pass and move. I’ve found a pint of beer for under two quid at the home of the first World Cup winners, learnt to love hot cups of Bovril laced with white pepper, recognised a couple of dozen names from old Newcastle reserve teams and watched an FA Youth Cup winner and an ex-international captain playing for Spennymoor Town. Most of all, though, I’ve remembered that watching a game of football is supposed to be fun.

 

And that, to me, is what Northern League Day is about. The fun you can still have with your mates (or your dad), watching a game of football in which both teams are giving their all. It costs £4, a fiver at the most. A tenner will get you ninety minutes by a touchline and enough change left over for a couple of drinks. It’s a beautiful day outside. What do you have to lose?

http://northernleagueday.wordpress.com/

[Billy Castell 0]

Would Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor Utd be localish to Newcastle? They'll probably be around this sort of level, and my grandad played for them in the 1950's.

 

Anyhow, I've taken a shine to West Allotment Celtic. It sounds like you can watch a game then buy some runner beans afterwards. Can't imagine the pitch being too good though.

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

I know a few lads who play at Dunston, will be popping along to their cup final against Gateshead on Good Friday.

[Kid Dynamite 6961]

Would Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor Utd be localish to Newcastle? They'll probably be around this sort of level, and my grandad played for them in the 1950's.

 

Anyhow, I've taken a shine to West Allotment Celtic. It sounds like you can watch a game then buy some runner beans afterwards. Can't imagine the pitch being too good though.

 

Bishop is about 45mins away, Spenny about 30mins.

 

If Im going to a non league game it tends to be Blyth, Whitley Bay, Whickham, Dunston Fed or CLS