Wearside League Wanderings - part five

258. Eastbourne Sports Complex

Darlington Cleveland Bridge 4v2 Prudhoe Town
Wearside League
Saturday 7th August 2010

Three new clubs entered the Wearside League this season, two of which met on the opening day of the season at the Eastbourne Sports Complex.
This is the fifth season of the current Darlington Cleveland Bridge, having played two years in local leagues followed by two seasons in the Teesside League.
The original club formed in 1903 as a works team for employees only. They began playing at a higher level in 1981 when joining the Northern Alliance, which they won in 1982-83. The following season they stepped up to the Northern League, playing in the Second Division and changing their name to Darlington Cleveland Social in 1993-94. The club folded early in the 1996-97 season after losing all eight matches. The factory closed and their Neasham Road ground where they had played since their formation was sold off for housing.

The Eastbourne Sports Complex is found on the edge of Darlington town centre just off Yarm Road. The players use the changing rooms in the complex building, which means a long walk through the car park to the pitch. The ground has full athletics provisions surrounded by a running track. There’s a storage block which has refreshment facilities and a slight overhanging roof which acts as the only spectator shelter.
At each side of the pitch there is raised grass banks, with the far side giving the best view being closer to the pitch. Cleveland Bridge entertained Prudhoe Town, who have returned to competitive action after a year out after resigning from the Northern League at the end of the 2008-09 season.
The home side only took 8 minutes to score their very first goal in the Wearside League, Ripley pounced with a close range volley after a mix up in the Prudhoe defence.
Further first half strikes from Richardson who finished well after beating the offside trap and a shot from the edge of the box from substitute Wilson but the hosts in a commanding position at the break.
During the first half I noticed a spectator sporting a Plymouth Argyle shirt, I surmised that this could only be one person, as there can’t be that many Pilgrims fans in County Durham. My inkling was correct when I was approached at half time by 100FgC squad#138 Lee Stewart who introduced himself and together we watched the second half.
When Ripley added his second goal of the afternoon it was a case of just how many more Cleveland were going to add to the four goal bagged in the opening 48 minutes.
Prudhoe improved as the game progressed and Best reduced the deficit on 65 minutes, which looked no more than a consolation, but with five minutes remaining he added his second with a close range header after the initial shot came back off the crossbar.
In the last five minutes Town missed numerous chances, creating more in the dying embers of the game then they had in the opening 85 minutes. If the game had gone on for a further ten minutes you would have fancied Prudda to grab a point. Overall the game was quite entertaining and Cleveland Bridge can be pleased with their encouraging start.
Matchday stats
DCB 4(Ripley 8,48 Richardson 12 Wilson 38) PTFC 2(Best 65,85)
Att. 33hc
Admission and programme:none
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264. Bishopton Road West
Stockton Town 4v2 Boldon CA

Wearside League

Saturday 18th September 2010

The other new Wearside League club this season are Stockton Town, this being only their second season in senior football after playing in the Teesside League last season.
The club originally formed in 1979 as Hartburn Juniors, fielding their first side in the Teesside Junior Football Alliance at Under-12 level. In 2003 they became Stockton Town having obtained the FA Charter Standard for Clubs the previous year.
The club now runs seventeen sides from boys under-7’s to under-18’s, along with the senior side, Reserves and three girls teams.

The Bishopton Road West ground is found about a mile from Stockton town centre in between Stockton Sixth Form College and Our Lady & St Bedes School.
The entrance is shared with the college, at the far side of the car park is the clubhouse which has a fully licensed bar which has live big screen football (On them dodgy channels…Eddy) and also houses the changing room facilities.
The pitch is at the side of the clubhouse and behind the neighbouring school, which is quite a walk away over two other football pitches at the far end of the field. The pitch is fully fenced off, surrounded by hard standing with a pair of Perspex dugouts.

My second game in the Wearside League this season saw the same score line as my previous encounter, with the home side again coming out on top.
Stockton took an early lead with a header from Scott Hine from eight yards out which went in via both the goalkeeper and crossbar, as they comfortably held on to their one goal advantage until half time.
Boldon started the second half well and early pressure was rewarded with a penalty on the hour from Meak, who was brought down by ‘keeper Swann in a one-on-one situation, although the referee’s decision was very harsh indeed.
The goal was a wake up call for Stockton, within eight minutes they lead 3-1 with striker Hines completing his hat-trick. His second goal was a cool finish, going round the ‘keeper before slotting the ball home and his third was from the penalty spot, the referee levelled things up making it once each in bogus penalty decisions.
The visitors reduced the arrears in the last minute with a fine finish by Hudson, but never threatened in time added on, instead it was the hosts who clinched it with substitute Ballantyne capitalising on a defensive error, allowing him an easy finish to wrap up the three points. During the interval myself and my son James wandered into the clubhouse and after a spot of channel hopping the barman found the Everton v Newcastle game, which I was delighted to viddy during the half time break. The match finished at 4.15pm which gave us a good 35 minutes left of the match at Goodison to watch, so after racing back to the clubhouse imagine our disappointment when we found a blank screen on the wall, accompanied with the words ‘No signal’ (Dodgy channels indeed…Eddy) so we had no choice but to head back home, having to settling on listening in on tin-pot local radio.

Matchday stats
STFC 4(Hines 5,63,69p Ballantyne 90+5) BCA 2 (Meak 64p Hudson 90)
Admission £1
Programme: none
Att.45hc

My Matchday - 163 Welfare Ground

Brandon United 0v3 Prudhoe Town
Arngrove Northern League Division Two
15th March 2008
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This is my fifth attempt this season to tick off Brandon United’s Welfare Ground, each time I’d made plans to visit either vandalism or an act of God stopped me in my tracks, burned out dugouts, floodlight failure, a waterlogged pitch and even the roof of the stand almost blown down. This meant having to turn to my contingency plan and a revamp of my carefully planned out fixture list, but at last success, the game was on and I found the ground ok, even though I made the mistake that I’d been warned about, driving up the wrong dirt-track and ending up amongst the nearby allotments.
Brandon is a village, just south-west of Durham City, the clubs origins began by employees of waste paper company Rostrons, who formed a Sunday morning side in 1968, by 1974 they were re-branded as Brandon United, becoming one of the top Sunday morning clubs in the country, this was proven when winning the FA Sunday Cup in 1976, beating Brum side Evergreen 2-1 in the final.
In 1977 a switch to Saturday football, joining the Northern Alliance, winning 2 titles and 2 League Cups in 3 seasons, they resigned from the league in 1980 but an unsuccessful attempt to get into the Northern League meant a backward step into the Northern Amateur League, however the club finally fulfilled their ambition in 1983 via the Wearside League route, which also included a win in the Shipowners Cup during that brief spell.
They won the Northern League 2nd Division in only their second season, after nine years they were relegation, but again gained promotion at the turn of the century, they pushed on becoming Northern League Champions in 2002/03, the following season they finished 8th, but since then there’s been a steady decline, 18th then relegated the following year, 17th last season, with this campaign being their worst, tailed off at the bottom of the league, with only one solitary league victory all season.
I attended the reverse fixture last season when I visited Kimberley Park and the status of both clubs have swapped over, last season it was Prudhoe who were languishing at the bottom, in danger of having to resign from the league, however they’ve made a steady improvement this season, but Brandon seem jammed in reverse gear, stuck at the bottom of a very steep hill.
The Welfare Ground has a capacity of 3,000, with the best gate of 2,500 in that FA Sunday Cup semi-final success, as I’ve already mentioned, this ground has took a bit of a good hiding this season and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but all things considered the ground doesn’t look to bad. The ground’s clubhouse is outside in the car park, where you find the turnstiles, the ground is up a flight of stairs giving a ground a lofty position, so it can get a wee bit cold, which means a good supply of hot Bovril is needed to keep the bloodstream going.
The nearside has open standing which continues behind each goal, with a long single bench running full length between both corner flags, the main spectator area is on the far side. This is split into three different sections, a standing terrace, a row of four bench-type seats and sandwiched in between a separate seated section with a surrounding wall, which is more likely used for press and VIP purposes should the occasion arise. There is another small built up terrace next to the stand and to the other side there’s portakabins used as a canteen and club facilities, the players changing rooms are in a separate building in the far corner.

An encouraging start to the game from Brandon, they looked a better side than I expected, carving out several good openings in the first ten minutes, but unfortunately they lacked conviction or someone willing to take responsibility in front of goal, this was typified after 20 minutes, when Dixon beat the offside trap, he ran on with only the keeper to beat, but instead of shooting he decided to square the ball to the supporting striker and from four yards out, with the goal at his mercy, he somehow missed the target, shooting into the side netting, not a candidate; but easily the winner of ‘miss of the season’ I won’t mention the lads name, but no.7, you know who you are. As is usually the case, they were punished for their poor finishing when Potts gave Prudhoe the lead on 36 minutes, a free kick from the right was flicked on and the burly striker’s diving header found the roof of the net, giving Prudhoe the half time lead(I later found out this was an own goal, my eyes must have deceived me)
By the hour mark it was game over, a megatastic mistake from the United keeper, spilling the ball and letting it run under his legs to present Brown to score with ease and minutes later a goal from Potts, direct from a long clearance from the Town keeper, he ran on to the end of another flicked header before picking his spot with a good finish to make it 3-0. Prudhoe had several chances to add to their tally, while that encouraging start (and the hope I would see a rare Brandon win) from the hosts seemed a distant memory.
Due to the backlog of home fixtures, Brandon still have other opportunities to reward their home support with that winning feeling this season, the club issued a reasonably good match day programme for the bargain price of 75p, there was an informative piece titled ‘This week in history’ and on March 15th 44BC the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar in a conspiracy led by Brutus and Cassius. I remember learning about that in school and seeing it reconstructed on TV programmes like I Claudius and Rome. Who could forget those immortal last words “ infamy infamy they’ve all got it in for me” before the first of those 23 stab wounds ended the dictators life, or am I getting confused with something else? I should maybe ‘carry on’ writing about football grounds, instead of trying to be clever by adding a bit of culture to my posts.
Anyway good luck to Brandon United for the rest of the season, a bit of self belief and they’ll be ok, I’ve never heard of any news regarding relegation from the Northern League, so they’ll be able to start again next season with a clean slate, surely they can’t have another season as bad as this one, so the only way is up, well.. they can’t get any lower can they?

Links-
Simple Pieman’s visit(March 2005)

Football Bog Blog no.11

Ground no.163 Welfare Ground - Matchday Web album(15 pictures)

My Matchday - 152 Mount Pleasant

Marske United 4v0 Prudhoe Town
Arngrove Northern League 2nd Division
17th November 2007
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I was advised to wrap up warm whilst visiting Marske-by-the-Sea on the Cleveland coast, Marske United’s Mount Pleasant ground is close enough to the chill that comes off the North Sea, so I was sensibly dressed in ‘me big coat’ and not as a stereotypical Geordie with only a thin t-shirt on.
Marske United FC were formed in 1956 replacing the disbanded Marske Rovers, after earlier playing in local leagues the club joined the Teesside League in 1976, two league titles in the ‘80’s lead to progression to the Wearside League in 1985. United enjoyed cup success in the North Riding competitions until an historic season in 1995-96 saw a clean sweep of Wearside League Silverware; League Title, League Cup, The Sunderland Shipowners Cup and the Monkwearmouth Cup meant the club were obviously too good for this division so a natural step up to the Northern League was the answer. Major ground improvements to Mount Pleasant including the installing of floodlights meant the clubs ambition was fulfilled for the 1997-98 season, a season which ended with a 3rd place finish and another promotion.
The clubs established themselves in the Northern League First Division, including three top four finishes, but after managerial changes and an overturn of players the club were relegated in 2004, last season saw a 5th place finish, so these Marsked men will be hoping to sneak in to a promotion place this time around.
Mount Pleasant has been ‘The Seasiders’ home since 1960, the club run a supporters fund called ‘Friends of Marske United’ which contributes to ground improvements and maintenance, the ground is tucked inside a housing estate, neighboring the local village Bowling Club; on arrival you find the clubhouse is situated in the main car park. When I arrived there was an anticipated crowd (well half a dozen) already forming a queue at the gate, the admission is probably the cheapest in the league; only £2.50 and the National Non-League Programme of the Year priced at a give away 50p, so great value which made the 50 mile journey worthwhile.
The ground is on a higher level, up a flight of stairs, next to the steps is a board showing off the clubs winning honours, and at the top to your immediate left is the Main Stand which is pleasing on the eye, with club colours of a bright yellow frame and flip seats with a blue interior, on the nearside there is also a covered standing area which has 3 redundant leather seats parked in the middle, the home dugout is sandwiched in between and the changing rooms are behind these two sections, back down a flight of stairs adjoining the clubhouse. The most popular spectator area is to the right of the stairs, which is a raised concrete pathway, in the corner is a small covered standing area and the other three sides of the ground is open standing, the far side has a large yellow banner welcoming you to Mount Pleasant with the standing area again raised above pitch level which makes for good matchday viewing, the away dugout is also lodged here.
Prior to kick-off a presentation was made to Marske legend Liam Smith, who has unfortunately had to hang up his boots due to a serious heart condition, he’ll be sadly missed at Mount Pleasant and I wish him good health and all the best in the future.
The match was the proverbial game of two halves, a scrappy first 45 where both teams struggled to get a foothold on the game, with the only notable chance falling to centre half Micky Waller whose free header went just wide, the second half was a different story, four goals and what crackers they were. The first arrived in the 54th minute, courtesy of my man of the match Jon Stott with an unstoppable left foot shot from the edge of the box (a rarity according to the locals, pleased I was here to see it) this was followed by a diving header from Waller on 62 minutes, getting on the end of a corner kick to score from inches out, a superlative chip from left-back Liam McPhillips on 71 minutes made it three and the 2nd half blitz was complete on 81 when Dane Breckon chased a hopeful through ball on the right, he showed a great turn of pace to outmuscle the full-back before dribbling past a couple of defenders and rounding the keeper ‘Ricky Villa style’ to round off a great second 45 for the Seasiders.
I found Marske United a very friendly club, I was spotted taking a few photos and the supporters were interested to know who I was (which makes a change from who’s the sad sack with the camera) and I was pleased that they knew of the 100FGC (good ego boost) so my visit to Mount Pleasant was a very pleasant experience and a warm welcome made up for the cold conditions where even ‘me big coat’ wasn’t enough to protect me from the elements.

Links - Marske United Match Report - http://www.marskeunitedfc.co.uk/ReportPrudNov07.htm

Ground no.152- Mount Pleasant – Matchday Web album.(16 pictures)

My Matchday 133 - Kimberley Park

Prudhoe Town 1v2 Brandon United
Arngrove Northern League Division Two
7th April 2007
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Prudhoe Town lies in the Tynedale District, just south of the River Tyne in the southern part of Northumberland, bordering with Tyne & Wear,the town isn’t pronounced the way it appears, it isn’t a two syllable word Prud-hoe but a singular “Pruddah”, the name actually means ‘proud heights’ where as Prud-hoe sounds like some sort of gardening implement.
The club was originally founded in the neighbouring village of Ovington in 1959 and played in a local farmers field in the Hexham & District Amateur League,they moved to a new home in 1969 at Eastwood Park and with it a new name Prudhoe East End,from there on the club progressed rapidly through three of the local leagues before election to the Northern Alliance in 1984-85.
In 1987 the club moved to their present residence at Kimberley Park,which was built on the land of a former council tip (cue..what a load of rubbish! joke) and it takes it’s name from Kimberley-Clark(now SCA Hygiene) the nearby factory which makes paper products,like Kleenex tissues and toilet roll,when I see the name Kimberley-Clark the first words that spring to mind are “is a slag” after seeing this sharp observation written on a toilet roll dispenser below the company logo in bold black ink,at a former place of employment.
‘The Citizens’were twice runners up in the Northern Alliance on the second occasion in 1988 they took promotion into the newly expanded Northern League Division Two,they’ve managed to gain promotion to the First Division twice,but were relegated the following season on both occasions in 1994(the year they changed their name to Town)and 2002.
Entrance to the ground is gained via a lane which runs off Broomhouse Road,there is plenty of traffic constantly coming and going but this has nothing to do with the football club,to the left of the lane is the local landfill and quarry site,the ground is further on to the right,and is instantly noticeable by the eight tall floodlight pylons.
A ground that was once a tip,is anything but that,the first impression is that it’s very tidy and is well maintained,three sides of the pitch are surrounded by grassed banked standing areas,these along with the pitch itself look immaculate,there’s a wooden fence that borders the grounds surroundings and there isn’t a splinter out of place.
There is a main stand which has approximately 250 dark green seats,the nearby clubhouse, refreshment area with a small covered terrace and changing rooms are painted the same colour to blend into one,there is another unused stand which is half built and seems to be wrote off and is used as a storage area.
Prudhoe Town gave a battling display in their bit to avoid the Northern League wooden spoon,a goal midway through the first half from Brandon right-back Craig Macklin capitalising from a loose ball from a corner separated the sides at half time. The second half continued in the same vain with Prudhoe unable to make the most of their possession with poor quality in the final third and it didn’t come as a surprise when United gained the advantage winning a penalty after Michael Fort was brought down in the box,he got up dusted himself down and coolly slotted home before limped off injured,Town pulled a goal back but were unable to get the much needed equaliser as Brandon finished the game comfortably,to take the three points back home to the Welfare Ground.
As we near the end of the current season, it’s uncertain whether this is the end of the road for Prudhoe Town.They submitted their resignation from the Northern League a few months back,but the feedback from the club is that it’s a precautionary measure as they await news regarding the relegation situation.With the FA now confirming that Durham City and Blue Star will definitely progress into the new Unibond League regional division then this may result in no clubs relegation from the ANL,so this could be the clubs saving grace,because the whisper I heard today is if Prudhoe lose their Northern League status then they won’t carry on at all,which is a shame because to make a decision like that and lose another local club would be rubbish!