Boro Rangers 4-0 Boldon CA, Wednesday 5th October 2022

Boro Rangers 4-0 Bolden CA, Northern League Division 2, Stokesley Sports Club, att. 59 (c. 2 away)

After seeing all 41 Northern League teams in action at home last season, it’s taken me till October to catch my first NL game of this season. My priority are the new sides in the league…Pickering Town, Prudhoe YC Seniors, Chester-le-Street United and Boro Rangers. Tonight I’m at the latter and I have to admit to knowing very little about them. Wiki says they’re a Durham team, and up till this point they’ve played their home games this season at New Ferens Park on the edge of Durham (Durham City’s ground till they became wandering nomads).

The ground situation in the NL remains fluid. Washington have recently moved into a new ground in their own town (woo hoo!), a welcome return from the abysmal Ford Hub in Sunderland (home of Sunderland West End). Prudhoe Youth Club Seniors (bizarrely, the men’s side is a spin-off of the youth club side, the original Prudhoe Town having gone bust) play at the old Kimberley Park ((now Essity Park), sharing with Newcastle University. Chester-le-Street United, meantime, started the season at the Riverside, but before I’ve had chance to get there, have been forced out due to the inadequacy of the floodlights. However, instead of sharing with local rivals Chester-le-Street Town, they’re off to the plastic of the Ford Hub. Hopefully that’ll be as temporary as possible. Pickering Town, relegated from the Northern Premier League East, have been placed in the NL by the FA and now face some long trips from their North Yorkshire base. They’re now the most southerly outpost of the NL and a good hour and a half from my County Durham home. Good job Penrith and Carlisle City are in the first division, that’d be 3 hours+.

So, from Ferens Park, Boro Rangers open their account this evening at the Stokesley Sports Club, over the (Tees) border, the other side of Middlesbrough. It’s also the home of the North Riding County FA. Their last away game was also here, against similarly confused Billingham Synthonia, again, across the Tees in the ancient county of Durham. So, does that mean I must make TWO visits to Stokesley this season?

I’m unsure of Rangers’ origins. Their badge looks uncannily like Middlesbrough’s. Were they formed by Boro fans? Dunno, but the 2 kids behind the goal are the manager’s kids and they’re (Middles)boro season ticket holders, they tell me. Perhaps this accounts for the low crowd tonite. Middlesbrough are at home in the Championship, and there’s also Champions League on telly. (Then again, maybe not….their home attendances this season have been 40, 68 and 29, terribly low even by NL division 2 standards.) Why come out to the nether regions to get cold? Well, local folk are missing a treat. Rangers were on fire tonite, continuing a run that’s brought them the North Riding League 7 (seven) years in a row, no mean achievement. 4-0 winners over midtable Boldon, they’re 2nd on goal difference with 35 points and 11 wins from 14 games. Ironically, their only defeat was in their final home game at New Ferens Park against their new groundsharers Synthonia.

I quite like the ground. I park up in the large car park adjacent and am in. A small stand seating around 200 takes up a quarter of the touchline from the corner flag, while behind the near goal is virtually all covered, creating a cosy feel. The dugouts are tight to the fence on the far side, meaning you can’t technically make a circuit of the stadium, while a wooden fence encloses the other end. A hedge down half a touchline completes a quaint venue. Oddly the changing rooms are outside the ground, in a building also housing the clubhouse. I go in at half time to have a cuppa and warm up. There’s a long wait on the kettle though, so I settle for a Staropramen and updates of the Champions League on the telly.

Rangers were on top throughout and opened the scoring after 13 minutes. Harry Williams brought the ball forward, cut inside, and lashed a shot into the top corner from 20 yards. His second, after the hour mark, was another great finish, a volley from a ball over the top. The 3rd was due to a mistake from the keeper, as he gave the ball away on the edge of the box. One pass later and it’s drilled low into the far corner. Mitchinson completes a double of his own, hammering a drive into the top of the net behind the keeper as the latter tiptoed out expecting a cross (as did Mitchinson’s teammates). It’s full-time and the keeper storms out back to the changing rooms. ‘F***in’ embarrassing that, mind.’ I think he means the team’s overall performance, rather than his own. It was a very poor night for Boldon.The Damage:£5 ent£3.95 Staropramen= £8.95The Tunes:BBC6 Music (Marc Riley / Gideon Coe)

Sunderland West End 4-0 Boldon CA, Wednesday 1st September 2021

Sunderland West End 4-2 Boldon CA, Northern League Division 2, Ford Sports Hub, att. 120

An almost blast from my childhood today as I ventured to Sunderland West End. Turns out it’s near to the rundown suburb of Pennywell, where I had my first drag of a cigarette a week before my tenth birthday. It was my worldly-wise cousin’s 12th birthday and he was a hardened smoker already. It was Halloween, 1983, and we carried our lamps (made from turnips) around the estate, as we asked ‘Penny for Halloween?’ Basically, legalised begging, which has since evolved into the industry that is ‘trick or treat?’ We made four pence between the seven of us. I said the area was rundown.

The Ford Quarry Hub is the opposite, a smart, new sporting complex encompassing a leisure centre and 3 3G pitches, the main one of which is West’s home. Enclosed and floodlit, it’s like a larger version of an outdoor 5 aside venue. I’d expected as much. Seating was provided by two 50-seater stands identical to those I saw at Redcar Athletic the other week. 4 rows of 6 seats either side of steps, with two additional seats on the 4th row, at the top of the steps. A very handy (cheap) design for any club needing to up their seating quota to attain league membership.

Sunderland West End are a Northern League second division team from….you guessed it…the west end of Sunderland. They’ve a brief history, forming in their current guise in 2011, playing up through the Wearside League and gaining promotion to the Northern League after coming 2nd in 2018-19. Tonight, 8 games in, they’re amongst the leaders in division 2 and face a local derby against Boldon CA, a few miles north. Certainly, the crowd appeared boosted by a few travelling away fans.

Otherwise, there’s not a lot to distract the eye. No covered standing, and you have to access the ground through the leisure centre behind one goal. Initially, the lady on reception was demanding QR codes (that pesky Coronavirus again) but establishing that nobody in the queue had one, she let us in anyway, telling us we’d better have one for next time or we’re not getting in. That’s ok, I can’t see myself returning.

Once through the leisure centre, there’s a large mesh fence and the turnstiles. Save yourself a fiver and watch from here! There’s also a large café-bar at this end, handy for Sky Sports if the entertainment on the pitch isn’t up to scratch. I paid my fiver and entered. Hurrah! One team is playing in the red and white stripes of Sunderland. Please tell me it’s West End, following the local habit of playing in the colours of the local professional ‘giants’ (see also: Seaham Red Star and one of the Ryhope teams). It was.

I was intrigued by the West End #5…he looked older than me. So he ran everything from centre half/sweeper. Although not fast, he look assured, could pass, and was never flustered unlike his colleagues. He also never stopped telling his teammates what to do. Is he an ex-professional? (Sort of. Keith Graydon, 38 years old and formerly of Gateshead and Ireland Under 20s, amongst others.) He doesn’t look a day under 50, but a class act on the pitch.

The game was a cracker, 4-2, including the killer 4th from the halfway line, as the Boldon keeper went pushed up to be a Manuel Neuer-esque sweeper-keeper. Problem was, no-one told his teammates who cheaply lost it. Still, it’s not easy punting a ball 50 yards, never mind getting it on target. There were still 20 minutes left, so no excuses for the keeper, though his side still couldn’t get back into the game when West End had a man sent off for a bad challenge. The scorer had earlier had an on-field argument with Graydon…’you’re telling me to do one thing and the manager another.’ I can understand his problem, but I don’t think either had told him to lose the ball cheaply, which he had been doing till then.

2nd half, I’d been standing behind the goal at the leisure centre end after a half time cuppa (served by the lady who’d earlier been in reception). Sadly, I couldn’t walk around the 4th touchline, which was kept for the dugouts and spare goalposts, though I was ‘lucky’ enough to hear a father telling his son he was ‘a f***ing pouf.’ I know not what said offspring had done to deserve his moniker.

The Damage:
£5 ent
£1.40 tea
= £6.40

The Tunes:
BBC6 Music (Marc Riley / Gideon Coe)