Marske United 3-1 Bamber Bridge, Tuesday 22nd August 2023

Marske United 3-1 Bamber Bridge, Northern Premier League Premier Division, Mount Pleasant, att. 392

With a house purchase in the Yorkshire Pennines on the go, time is starting to run out on getting to grounds here in the north-east. In the top 8 tiers I’m missing 2 in the north east, Marske and Morpeth…and by the weekend I’ll have been to both. Tonite, it’s a trip to the Yorkshire coast, but it’s an easy drive, Marske being just the other side of Redcar. Indeed, Redcar Athletic is closer to Marske’s ground than it is to their town rival Town.

Marske have done very well for themselves in recent years. How does a village, with a population one-fifth the size of Redcar, manage to have a football team 2 tiers higher? I asked the father of one of the players and he doesn’t know either, whether they’re bankrolled or not. What is not in doubt is that Marske have had an upward trajectory in recent times, being in the 11th tier (the Wearside League) until 1985.

Not having enough intelligence to get here early and savour the seaside, I parked up around the corner from the ground with 15 or so minutes to kick-off. I didn’t risk going down the one track lane to Mount Pleasant, though it turned out there was room in the car park(s). After a couple of photos, I spied the programme seller. ‘Limited edition’ he told me, ‘Only 50 printed’. Really? ‘No, not really, but it sounds better dun’t it?’ Respect. He got my money all the same.

I had no time for the social club outside, but there was a can bar inside. All the favourites, if by ‘favourites’ you mean a list of alcoholic beverages I don’t drink. Coors, Fosters, Guinness, Strongbow Dark. Nevermind, I have a pocket full of Opal Fruits and a ground to root around. Turns out I’ve entered right by the corner flag. Behind the goal is a small covered structure with the end backed by a wooden fence tight to the touchline. The opposite end is the same, fronting on to the gardens of a row of semis.

The far side also backs onto gardens, though a small bank proves useful to many of the locals. I elect to stand on this side, siding with a TV gantry on scaffolding which hogs the halfway line. Across from me is the main stand behind which is the silhouette of a church. Lovely. Another low-slung stand sits beside it, both with about 4 rows of seating.

Tonite Marske face Bamber Bridge and come up surprising 3-1 victors, arch goalscorer Adam Boyes with a hattrick. How do they afford him? Fans on the small terrace beside the entrance make the most of it, chanting ‘you’re just a s*** town in Blackpool’ at the shellshocked visitors. How they have lost, only they will know. Marske only had one tactic – kick it to Boyes. And it worked.

The Damage:
£12 ent
£2.50 prog
= £14.50

*Less than 3 weeks later Marske went bust, all their results for the season annulled. I guess they couldn’t afford Adam Boyes after all.

Redcar Town 4-3 Redcar Athletic / Marske United 2-0 Guisborough Town, Sunday 25th July 2021

Redcar Town 4-3 Redcar Athletic / Marske United 2-0 Guisborough Town, The Vibrant Doors Stadium, Mo Mowlam Memorial Park, Mo Mowlam Memorial Cup, att. c.100-200

What a brilliant, yet simple, idea – have a pre-season tournament and invite 4 local sides to compete, winners of each semi to play the final. And so it was that I was in Redcar on a hot sunny Sunday afternoon. I mainly know Redcar as a seaside resort, a place where, once in every 3 years, our town’s workman’s club (‘CIU affiliated’) would go (the other years being South Shields and Whitley Bay). Us kids got a pound pocket money and I remember as many as 9 buses heading from Ferryhill to these exotic places. Sadly, time has changed. The ‘rides’ at Redcar have long gone, though they were a far cry from Whitley Bay’s ‘Spanish City’….I think Redcar’s rides were in some warehouse / aircraft hanger. Anyway, happy days.

Today though, I’m seeing none of the sea. I’m at The Vibrant Doors Stadium, part of the Mo Mowlam Memorial Park, for the Mo Mowlam Memorial Cup. For those of a younger vintage, Mo was the MP for Redcar and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland who was pivotal to the peace talks which culminated in the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998, but who sadly died in 2005. How time flies. As a mark of her enduring legacy, Belfast too has a park named in her honour.

The Vibrant Doors Stadium is on the Trunk Road leading into Redcar and today was very easy to spot with the parked cars in the fields adjacent. I turned into the main car park, to be asked whether I was playing or spectating. I wish! At 47, I should have called her bluff, but instead was pointed in the direction of a field which had been taken over for the weekend’s footie.

Redcar Town, the hosts, are a relatively new team, having only been formed in 2014. Their ascent has been speedy, as they have progressed from local leagues to becoming members of the Northern League second division this season. This weekend their guests were Northern League 1st division sides Redcar Athletic and Guisborough Town, as well as upwardly mobile neighbours Marske United, currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One North West.

Today’s entertainment kicked off at 12:30 with the losers from yesterday facing each other – the Redcar derby. With other responsibilities this morn, I arrived with about 10 minutes left, in time to see Town nick an 84th minute winner, 4-3. Sounded like a cracker. I looked around, there were maybe 100 people watching. A bit disappointing, but I overheard an official later say ‘between 650-700’ had come in the 2 days play. I’d say there were 200+ for the final, Marske v Guisborough, as Marske fans came in numbers. Smaller than Redcar, but near enough that Athletic’s ground is closer to Marske’s than it is Town’s, Marske appear to be a club on the up. Flags put up, shirts and scarves in attendance, and even their own ultras, the ‘yellow warriors’, complete with drum and what looked like a vuvuzela. Luckily, the instruments weren’t played too often.

Mind, the ultras did have one unintended effect. They’d homed in on the only cover in the ground (save for a gazebo bizarrely covering the trophy and plinth). As someone who struggles with the sun, I edged in, but even though we were inbetween games, the teenagers were keen to holler their support. I took my Coke and had a wander to the opposite end. I wondered how Redcar Town were allowed in the Northern League with their lack of seating. ‘Standards have dropped’ I was told.

The match was surprisingly zesty, considering both sides had played the previous day. Marske edged it throughout and won 2-0 with a near post finish and a 20 yard stunner as the protagonist cut in from the left past 2 or 3 defenders. An early contender for goal of the season. Certainly goal of the month (July). And I saw a trophy lifted for the first time since yesterday. Well played, Marske!

*possibly because of a conversation I was having with an old timer, on the way home I popped in to see where South Bank used to play, a detour of about 200 metres from the main road. What a pity a legendary Northern League club closed down because of constant vandalism to their ground. Now it’s a park and community centre, Golden Boy Green, named after local Boro all-time great Wilf Mannion.

The Damage:
£7 ent £1 Coca-Cola = £8

The Tunes:
Classics (Aphex Twin)