Black and White Tales from the North East

Finally football with crowds, and a double header of FA Cup action for Football Weekends

Nine days shy of six months, it was finally game day for me again! No one could have foreseen the devastating impact on all aspects of life when it all came to a halt in March. It certainly put the meaning of football into perspective, for a while at least. Some lands did the honourable thing and played the 19/20 season to a finish, with Spezia in Italy holding on by their fingertips in the last domestic game of last season anywhere in Europe to grab a long overdue return to Serie A. Il bianconeri (black and white) from the Southern Ligurian port of La Spezia dovetails nicely into the grand return of competitive football with crowds in England. The North East certainly loves a striped shirt, and maybe by sheer coincidence the host teams of my two games here both play in black and white stripes. 

It almost felt right that in an angst ridden six months, when football had lost a few more of its great players, to start back with action in Ashington, the home of Jack Charlton seemed appropriate. The day of his funeral, Ashington was full of people, paying tribute to another lost hero of the ‘66 England side. Neither Jack, nor Bobby ever played for Ashington, but this is their hometown, and rightly plans for a statue of Jack are underway.

Ashington is an old mining town tucked in land, north of Newcastle, between Blyth and Morpeth. The Woodhorn Lane stadium is in a quiet residential area on the eastern side of town, close to the Alnwick to Blyth road, however if you are coming in off the A1 near Morpeth, it won’t cause any great issues in terms of traffic getting through town. My co-pilot for these games, Sir Alex, an occasional FW contributor, had been at half a game here some 7 years previous following a fog abandonment, but it might as well be a new ground because the whole place has been buffed up and altered. That said, Woodhorn Lane has only been home to the club for 12 years, so it is interesting that it has already been significantly remodelled. A major paint manufacturer has supported the construction of a super new main stand with dressing rooms and bar facilities available that has altered the venue completely. The original small seated area, complete with roofed terracing has switched sides of the pitch, with the old dressing rooms/social club being demolished. It is certainly a well kept facility, one for the community to be proud. Oddly, Ashington wished to add “Community” to the club name, but alas this was refused by the FA. 

Ashington are the most northerly ex-league club in England, having participated in the old Division Three North as far back as the 1920’s, when they once made it to the FA Cup third round. A few decades later in December 1950, by then back as a non league side, they reached round two again, entertaining Rochdale in front of 13,199 fans, but all these wonderful moments of history were played at the clubs old Portland Park. These days the club are more modestly placed in the ninth tier in the Northern League First Division, although they have on occasion found themselves at the 10th level, the NL second division. 

So here we were entering a football ground for the first time in half a year. Ashington, like all other participating clubs, are presently restricted to a 300 capacity. Here they had no cash gate, strictly online purchase, complete with a texted barcode to your mobile for entry, all very sophisticated stuff. A one way system was in place for access/exit from the stand. Chapeau to the FA for getting the Covid instructions out to such an extraordinarily extensive number of sides taking part in this extra preliminary round of the FA Cup. The sheer organisation in a normal year is mind blowing, but right now, even more respect. The Italian and German Cups don’t even include all third tier sides, and this season in Scotland, allegedly due to sponsorship obligations, the 20/21 edition can’t start until after the proposed playing of the last final, which is set for 18th December! This has resulted in a proposal of just 10 invited non league clubs participating in a competition of only 52 teams. What sponsor would not wish the exposure of involvement of all small venues and towns? There have been a lot of mystifying things going on in Scottish football this summer, coupled with the likely inability to see the difference between big crowd matches and the much smaller non league set up, unlike in England. Looking at the crowds from the Northern League cup ties on 1st September, only one reached the 300 mark, and that was at Ashington, who allegedly exceeded the limit with a 320 attendance, but this included the club officials!

It was great to be back in a stadium, and the sheer excitement, with the added bonus of a warm evening sun had us pacing the pitch boundary at least 45 minutes before kick off full of anticipation. For a season’s opener in a campaign that might yet be fraught with delays and cancellations, this one set the bar exquisitely high. Both Ashington and Goole, their opponents on the night, might play in the ninth wave, but right from the off this game had pace, end to end action, with no lack of skill. Goole looked like a team that meant business, a sharper, slicker passing game saw them often get behind the Ashington defence, but without the reward of taking the lead. Indeed, perhaps against the run of play the home side stroked home a penalty, but Goole were level minutes later from a fine header. They continued to dominate possession but without the reward of a second goal. Ashington continued to counter dangerously, and just ahead of the interval Butler connected well with his left peg to thump home a second into the far corner of the net, allowing them to trot in at the break 2,1 up. 

The half-time chats and tactical alterations certainly worked for Ashington who were by far the better side in the second half, but they were thwarted, quite incredibly on occasion by the right hand of the Goole keeper, who was my man of the match, with some astonishing stops. Considering the paint company name on the stand and the Ashington shirt, they should have put the gloss on a superb 45 minute display when one on one with the Goole keeper, only the post stopped them winning by a greater margin. Goole invariably pressed for the equaliser and despite being second best for long spells, they nearly forced extra-time. 

It had been a thoroughly enjoyable game, if slightly surreal standing there thinking, “has it really been that long”, but a bit like anything we have been starved of, upon its return, it is savoured all the more. Ashington advance to the First Preliminary Round, and as luck would have it, they will be playing the winners of my second game, the following night, a little further south in the northern suburbs of Newcastle at High Heaton for Heaton Stannington versus West Auckland Town, with the visitors once World Cup winners, apparently, let’s investigate!

Well a damp afternoon on the edge of Newcastle does allow for further investigation of West Auckland’s curious claim to fame, when in 1909 and 1911 they won the Sir Thomas Lipton trophy, known to be the first ever International competition. Not only did they win it twice, the curious rules deemed a second success would mean West Auckland got to keep the trophy! The hilarious tale suggests Woolwich Arsenal had been approached to participate but the FA refused them permission, and instead a northern club of part timers, whose club had the same initials pawned almost as much as they could spare to buy their passage to Turin. They beat Stuttgarter 2,0 in the semi final and Wintherthur by the same score to win the inaugural competition. Two years later another Swiss side FC Zurich went down to the same 2-0 score, but in the final West Auckland surpassed all that went before beating Juventus 6-1! You have to love the odd quirks of football. So here they are at a much lower level, but with a fabulous history, that no one can take away. 

Heaton Stannington are from the High Heaton area, a northern suburb of Newcastle. Set the car Sat Nav and it will negotiate with ease the various roundabouts and turns to get you here, but if you are coming by train, Longbenton Metro stop is the nearest with a 15/20 minute walk thereafter. Facilities outside the ground in non Covid times might be more lavish, with an Italian restaurant that appears not to have reopened as yet close by. Kebabs are on hand for sure at another outlet, and a little down the road, a splendid pizza/burger take-away might allow for pre/post match sustenance, but be warned there are no pubs within a leisurely walk. That said, a pint is available as usual within the ground, an every game occurrence in England and elsewhere, but when you are from Scotland, sadly it’s still banned, another example of the inability to split the top echelon from lower league action.

Heaton Stannington have been playing since 1910, and currently reside in the 10th tier in the second division of the Northern League. The history of the club is largely about bobbing along in the lower reaches of the Northern non league scene, but alas a bankruptcy saw them reform in 1982 briefly as Heaton United in a Tyneside Amateur league. I asked club secretary Scott Lyndon at the game what was Stan’s (as they are known) moment in the sun, and unlike West Auckland’s yesteryear silverware, it was a mere 8 years ago. Gabon were in the area training ahead of playing Olympic football at St James Park down the road. They had arranged to play a local side, but the night before the friendly the planned opponents pulled out, resulting in Heaton Stannington hastily assembling a close season team at incredibly short notice to take on the African side including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang! Stan put in a commendable shift only losing 3-0. 

Groundsell Park, Heaton’s stadium is hidden from view behind business premises on the main road, and residential properties on all other sides, with a fine array of mature trees acting as additional canopy in the stadium, and believe me, these foliage laden woodlands were a saviour on this most inclement night. The ground has a very small area of seats and a similarly small standing covered terrace area, which was overfull for social distancing on this soggy night. We took refuge with umbrellas under the trees, but the rain was invariably winning. It is a well kept venue, and nearly the entire 261 at the game had somewhere to at least try to shelter from the increasingly torrential rain.

Considering the weather, and that this was the first competitive game of the season for both, we can forgive them for a largely forgettable first half, but my goodness, as soon as Alex said “this has 0-0 written all over it”, the game exploded into life and for the final 40 minutes this cup tie had everything. West Auckland, from one league higher, rarely looked the better side, a little more composure at times maybe, and they took the lead with an absolutely thunderous shot, quite easily the goal of the season so far. Stannington were not going to take this lying down and started a terrific fight back. The equaliser came courtesy of an horrific defensive blunder, and soon after Stan took the lead from a penalty having had an initial goal chalked off, there were just twenty minutes to go. Then a cracking free kick that hit the Auckland post before it was thrashed in from the resultant rebound, and at 3-1 it might have put them out of sight, but alas the linesman deemed it offside, much to the understandable consternation of the home players. This was the reprieve that the visitors needed to spark into life and they didn’t hang around to show sympathy, with the ball back in play as Heaton players tried to reason with the officials. West Auckland finally started to exert pressure, and the equaliser duly arrived just four minutes after the penalty, but what an extraordinary little period of play.  Both teams knuckled down and traded blows as they went in search of the winner, and when it came in the 95th minute, it was harsh on Heaton Stannington, but West Auckland’s greater composure and determination saw them slot home the winner with almost the last kick of the ball following a pacey move down the right wing. 

Two terrific cup ties, one in its entirety, the other a second half belter. West Auckland versus Ashington will be another cracking game in the next round I suspect. My money is on Jack Charlton’s home town, and if he was watching from above the other night, he’d have had a broad smile as his hometown team did him proud.