Pics: Andy Nunn & Jake Whiteley
SINCE booking their places at Wembley for FA Non-League Finals Day The Sequel, South Shields and Cleethorpes Town have been a bit busy.
On Tuesday, a 4-0 win against Marske stretched South Shields’ winning streak to 32 games as they toasted promotion from the Northern League a point away from promotion, on account that North Shields above them haven’t applied to make the step up.
In fact the last time they lost it was to North Shields, the club their joint-boss Graham Fenton left earlier in the season and who he led to FA Vase glory in 2015, and was their only defeat in a run of 38 wins from 39 games.
Relentless. Much like their schedule that has seen them play five games in 11 days and makes the winning run even more impressive.
This season they’ve also had three players suffer broken legs. Louis Storey’s injury earlier in the season was followed by club captain Leepaul Scroggins in a Sunday League game as he attempted to get some match fitness.
Two weeks ago, striker Stephen Ramsey broke his leg against Sunderland RCA. It’s with this and their busy fixture list in mind that has Fenton proud of the squad’s achievements so far.
“That’s what’s so special about it,” he says. “We have had a really heavy schedule for a while now. We’re in three cup finals so add that onto all the league fixtures we’ve had with the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
Priority
“It’s been a real squad effort with everybody playing their part. Whenever they get the chance to wear the shirt they give it the old proverbial 100 per cent, and we’ve been delighted with their form over that period of time.
“We’ve touched on it. The competition we’re playing against is almost ourselves in terms of, ‘If you want to play lots of football and this club then you’re going to have to turn out good performances’.
“The competition within the squad is why we’re on such a run because everybody knows if they put the shirt on and don’t do it justice, they’re not going to play very much.”
Over at Cleethorpes, Marcus Newell’s side are on a similar quest. They lead the Northern Counties East League and are desperate to finish the job.
Newell had a hip operation just a few days after their Vase semi win against Bromsgrove Sporting and has been laid up at home for their six games since waiting on updates.
“There’s not really a great deal I can do other than sit here with my fingers crossed trying to enjoy it when you clearly can’t,” says Newell, who has been in daily contact with his assistant Dave Smith and coach Matty Powell.
Both admit it’s now a balancing act. While there’s lots to sort out for the big day, the clubs were at Wembley on Thursday for a meeting and to flip the coin for who has which dressing room, the league is the pressing priority. Both will also arrive in London on the weekend of May 21 with special stories to tell.
It’s been quite the renaissance for north-east club South Shields over the last couple of seasons thanks to fresh investment.
With crowds regularly in four figures and signings like former Premier League star Julio Arca and the Non-League knowhow of players like Jon Shaw and Craig Baxter, they are clearly a formidable force in a hard-fought Step 5 division.
Their origins stretch way back to 1899 as clubs Gateshead AFC and Gateshead United have come and gone. Following last season’s Step 6 title, they will be playing in Step 4 next season as they look to continue the rise.
Fenton also hopes the Vase will be an opportunity to complete a quadruple.
“It’s a hungry bunch of lads,” he says. “The main goal at the start of the season was promotion. The next target would be to win the league.
Interest
“Then getting to FA Vase final is great but we obviously don’t want to be going to Wembley and coming away having just taken part in the day. We want to win that as well.
“We’ve got the Durham Challenge Cup and the League Cup before that. Those cup finals are going to help us because there’s such a break between the league season and the FA Vase final.”
Perhaps it’s easy to forget that there’s a lot more to gain from reaching the final than just winning the game.
Cleethorpes also hope they can continue to raise the profile of their club and it helps their goal of building their own ground.
Established as Lincolnshire Soccer School in 1988 by former Grimsby Town player Tommy Watson, they entered the Lincolnshire League just 14 years ago and now play at Grimsby Borough.
“For us winning the league, the FA Vase run is probably the worst thing to happen to us,” Newell says. “But from a club point of view, I wouldn’t imagine there are many clubs who reach the FA Vase final who haven’t got their own ground. We play at a council facility and we’re trying to get funding to create our own ground. We’ve got a pitch but it’s obviously not to Northern Counties East level.
“You’d like to think we’ll get quite a bit of interest out of it and anything we make will obviously go into building the ground. We’ve got planning permission and everything is in place, apart from money which is everything.
“It allows us to get back home and hopefully make some money from cups of teas, food and various other things.
“For the semi-final we had over 1,200. For a club our size, just on the bottles of beer, it’s a lot of money for us. So we’re hoping the Vase generates interest around the town. I think it has.
“The town is quite excited about what we’ve achieved – if we can get the league won it will be some season!”
It will be some game at Wembley in May too.
