Exactly a year ago, two FA Cup ties I watched in Northumberland and Tyneside featured home sides in black and white striped shirts, tales I brought to light from Ashington and Heaton Stannington last autumn for Football Weekends. Here on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of the August, with the Northern League providing a morning kick off for a double header, another two sides in similar attire were about to host the day’s entertainment on my very next sojourn into the English leagues.
An 11am kick off at Northallerton Town, North Yorkshire may be the earliest I have been at a game in Britain, but the early start forms part of the staple diet of football viewing in Uruguay with one top flight game scheduled at 10,15 on a Sunday, and 10am for the second tier game on a Saturday. I have done both, albeit the La Segunda game kicked off about 40 minutes late due to the need to paint some lines on the pitch as they had all been washed away overnight!
Northallerton Town play in the Northern League First Division, essentially the 9th tier of the English pyramid. They have never set the heather on fire, but neither have they struggled in the depths of the 10th tier or gone below that. The Northern League filters into the Northern Alliance league and that goes a few levels lower yet! In the early nineties the club reached the last qualifying round of the FA Cup, but frustratingly the journey ended there on both occasions meaning the dream of being in the hat with league clubs has yet to befall the Calvert Stadium club.
Northallerton’s stadium is actually in the western suburb of Romansby, a timely reminder that we are in the realm of what once was Viking territory. If you are headed here off the A1(M) by car you won’t even see Northallerton, you turn left at the first opportunity within the town’s westerly limit, and the ground is on your left a mere few metres up that leafy suburban road. The fresh country smells also remind you of the rural nature of the venue, and there is nothing wrong with that. There are no pubs or restaurants within a very quick walk, so if time is allowed, a deeper plunder into Northallerton will get you pre match comestibles. The town is of course on the East Coast train track, so access via this mode will leave you nearer the centre of amenities but only a fifteen minute walk from the venue.
Until 1974 Northallerton had played at the Bluestone (a great name similar to the old Goldstone in Hove), but rather unusually they ran into a compulsory purchase from North Yorkshire Council. The men in suits did provide the club with the stadium that they now use, and having negotiated a 25 year lease just a couple of years ago, the club has pushed on with making alterations and improvements to make a visit to the Calvert a more enjoyable experience. My visit coincided with a damp morning, so the fine shed area that runs along half of the pitch on one side (they also have a small 150 seat stand) meant the drizzle could be negotiated without getting wet.
In town for this early encounter were Guisborough Town, not Gainsborough as I had thought at one juncture, making this a North Yorkshire derby in a league dominated by clubs from regions slightly further north. It was never a dull encounter, but oddly in a theme that seemed to creep up in the second game too, the club who were on top and pressing invariably lost a goal on the counter. Guisborough had more of the ball in the first half, but Northallerton had the better opportunities, and of course they fell behind, but only for a mere minute as the teams went off at the break level. They played out the same story in the second half in similar fashion, albeit Northallerton led before a late Guisborough counter made it 2-2. They nearly won it at the end, but in game eight of the season Northallerton had their first draw of the new campaign, and that was just about right..
The second game was 38 miles north in County Durham where Spennymoor Town were playing York City. Given the two hour gap between the games, the distance was easily covered, and SatNav did its job negotiating the tight streets around Brewers Field, the home to Spennymoor.
If you’ve not been paying attention too much to the Northern scene, you might fall into the trap of thinking Spennymoor United, and not Town. There aren’t two Spennymoor sides, the former folded controversially mid-season in 2005, and from the dying embers of that situation rose a merger with another Spennymoor club, Evenwood Town, who were financially struggling too. The newly merged duo went for the name Spennymoor Town, using Evenwood’s Brewers Field where they still play to this day.
Spennymoor United had some notable success winning the Northern League five times in a ten year period from the mid seventies. They gradually started to rise up through the pyramid but a first ever relegation in 2002/03 was the catalyst of worse to come. Evenwood had won the Northern League too, albeit just over 50 years ago now. So these two proud clubs, having landed on troubled times decided to pull resources, and while they had to start off in the tenth tier in the second division of the Northern League (essentially where Evenwood were at that point) in August 2005, their rise has been steady if unspectacular, culminating in reaching the sixth tier for the 2017/18 season.
Given the previous history of financial troubles, steady progress is perhaps the best way forward for Spennymoor, which is a complete contrast to the slow decline of their visitors, York City. Once a proud league club who went toe to toe with Manchester United, and beat Everton in the League Cup amongst others, as well as once gracing the second tier of the English game. Their drop has been drip fed into a tortuous recent history, which culminated in a Covid denial for the Minstermen fans of having the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to the clubs long standing ground Bootham Crescent, or even an inauguration hello to the clubs new Community stadium home, just like Brentford and Wimbledon I guess.
The slightly sad aspect from a York perspective is a match-up with Spennymoor has become a staple of the fixture card ever since the County Durham club were promoted to this level, as York were relegated the same season as Spennymoor stepped up. Despite a number of years of malaise York are still a well supported team, and nearly 2,400 were packed into Brewery Field for this one.
Brewery Field is shoehorned into tight residential streets well away from any local pubs or eateries. Like all English venues, beer and a considerable menu of snacks are available at the ground, and unlike higher up the pyramid where beer has to be consumed in the concourse, Brewery Field doesn’t have such luxuries and beer supping around the ground whilst watching is all part of the experience. Coming from Scotland this is always an unusual, if not unpleasant addition to game day, it’s been so long since alcohol was allowed at our games the notion has almost been retired from the mind. Gone are the days of champagne cork popping competitions to see who could get the cork furthest onto the stock car track around Cowdenbeath’s Central Park in celebration of Meadowbank’s first promotion in the early eighties!
Back in Spennymoor, this game started off at a pace and it remained relentless throughout. The home side were well on top, but of course on this day, just like at Northallerton, Clayton Donaldson put York ahead. Considering York were pointless after three games, a nervous opening might have been expected, and Spennymoor were not in the mood for showing any sympathy, but the opening goal lifted their confidence and they started to dominate, but in time honoured fashion, a rather fortunate, almost comedy goal that bounced of the York keepers knee, ricocheting off the Spennymoor forward into the net sent the teams in level. That stroke of luck was the least the home side deserved for their enterprising opening salvos, and buoyed by getting level they set about ripping the edgy York defence asunder. Moors No.9 Glenn Taylor would probably have had a bad night after this one, with countless headers over the bar, complete with other chances, most especially an absolute sitter that would have put them deservedly in front. I guess you know what happened next, and you’d be spot on, York regained the lead. Minutes later a Moors man was clean through one on one with the keeper, but he didn’t look confident and he shot weakly, and of course before they knew it York were 3-1 up, the game was gone.
On another day York might have lost this game 5 or 6-3, but maybe after all their misfortune, lady luck was on York’s side. In gathering three points, it might be the spark they need on the road to brighter times. Spennymoor have enough craft, guile and enthusiasm to be competing at the top end of the National League North, but going up further levels might require a move away from Brewery Field, for as wonderful a venue as it is, I am unsure they couldn’t expand or build any new stand anywhere here to increase capacity as the houses are that close to its perimeter. It will be interesting to see where these two clubs progress this season.
Eight goals from two highly entertaining jousts was just what a periodically inclement day needed. When next I head south surely no one would dare to be playing in black and white stripes though!
Football Adventures with James Rendall 