Hebburn Town 1-1 (5-4 on pens) Spennymoor Town, Wednesday 3rd May 2023

Hebburn Town 1-1 (5-4 pens) Spennymoor Town, Durham Challenge Cup Final, Stadium of Light, att. 2,165

The non-league season is coming to a close and for most teams their season is over. This includes the National League North and Northern Premier League East, tiers 6 and 8 of the pyramid and the leagues of tonite’s opponents, Spennymoor Town and Hebburn Town. Having lost their play-off semi, it’s Hebburn’s last chance at glory, while for Spennymoor, it’s been a frustrating season. Play-off hopes, long since extinguished, were re-ignited at season’s end with a run of late form, before the fixtures ran out. Thus, Spennymoor are favourites this evening, though star forward Taylor is missing.

The Durham Challenge Cup is contested by every side in County Durham, or the traditional boundaries thereof; in other words, all the teams inbetween the Tyne and Tees. North of the Tyne is Northumberland, south of the Tees is the North Riding (Yorkshire). In theory, the competition should be a shoe-in for the likes of Sunderland, but given their superiority, they enter an Under 23 side, or, like this season, not at all. Oh well, their loss. And at least they’ve offered up their Stadium of Light for the final.

With 48,000 seats, I didn’t foresee any trouble getting a ticket….till I checked online on matchday. No cash turnstiles. Or card turnstiles for that matter. Unless you’d bought an advance ticket via Hebburn or Spenny, you had to have a Sunderland AFC ticket account and buy online. I can imagine how many Newcastle fans (for they do sadly exist in County Durham) would do that. The stadium itself was cashless, as the Durham FA programme sellers found when they went hunting for change. I’d have to come back later for a programme. ‘Maybe you’ll learn for next year?’

Only one side of the ground was open, the West Stand, and only the lower tier of that. It was more than enough. With the black and yellow of Hebburn to my left and the black and white of Spenny to my right, I sat on the halfway line a distance from anyone. As much as Spenny are my local team, there’s just something about black and white stripes I can’t altogether get along with. Still, it was probably as many of those patterned shirts as there’s ever been in Sunderland’s main stand.

I was bloody freezing. I thought summer was coming? Well, not in an evening game in Sunderland in early May, too close to the coast for comfort and a wind that somehow howled within a completely enclosed stadium. The fayre was generally poor too, with little in the way of goalmouth excitement. Spenny nicked one before half-time when Ramshaw turned in on the near post. Surely they’d now canter to victory?

Second half, I moved to be among the black and white. Like the penguins of shared colour, it was mainly for reasons of warmth. Only my determination to see full-time made me stay….and I was unrewarded with a Hebburn equaliser with 5 minutes to go. Purewal (who’d been playing for phoenix club Darlington 1883 a decade earlier in the Northern League) headed in from a corner. Did that mean extra time? I checked the programme. Why would it tell us such crucial info? Fans around me wondered the same. Thankfully, thankfully, it went to pens, Hebburn emerging victorious, just as they had in their semi final. So at least I got a penalty shootout. I always enjoy a penalty shootout. And for the first time in 31 years, the trophy was Hebburn’s. Well done The Hornets!

The Damage:
£10 Ent
£1 programme
= £11