Search: 'FA Vase'

Day five of the WSC advent calendar and we’re on to Shepherds. Freddie Shepherd, to be exact, who was featured in issue 135, May 1998. Ian Cusack told how Shepherd and Douglas Hall had brought shame upon their club and looked at what was next for Newcastle

Isn’t it great to read about a team from the North East, playing in black and white stripes, with the whole community behind them, who have reached Wembley and are blessed with a decent and honourable chairman? Best wishes to Tow Law, population 2,208, for their trip to the FA Vase Final. Now what about Newcastle United?

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Doncaster Rovers are going through a terrible time in their history, Ray Gilbert explains why

Doncaster’s residents found 1997 more than a match for Her Majesty’s notorious annus horribilis. The District Auditor blew his whistle on the gifts accepted by the nucleus of Labour members who have controlled local politics for years, and are now suspended. The new Doncaster Prison, Doncatraz to the locals, remained the privatisation flagship of the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation of Florida and has the worst record for inmates attacking fellow inmates of any prison in the UK. Doncaster College sailed on as the UK flagship of all that is wrong with Further Education colleges with a Principal widely accused of featherbedding himself. On top of all that we have Doncaster Rovers FC. The League’s worst team is dying as the Anton Johnson-led consortium riding to its rescue is kept waiting for the signatures of major shareholders Ken Richardson and the Dinard Trading Company of the Isle of Man.

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Saturday 3 Man Utd stumble, drawing 2-2 at Leicester after being two down. "It was very hot out there. I used to be a campaigner for Summer football but bugger that," says Alex, sweating off a stone on the touchline. Utd's lead over Liverpool is reduced to three points after the latter bumble past Spurs 2-1, the quality of the game gauged by Neil Ruddock winning Man of the Match. Arsenal's chances of landing the second Champions League place vanish after a 1-0 home defeat by Newcastle who could still finish second themselves (not been a vintage season, really, has it?). At the bottom Forest and their assorted managers are relegated following a 1-1 draw with Wimbledon and Coventry look doomed after a 2-1 home defeat by Derby. Middlesbrough blow a two-goal lead against Villa but still nick the points with an injury time penalty while Southampton and Sunderland edge nearer to safety after home wins over Blackburn and Everton who are themselves still in danger of the drop (Jack Walker and Peter Johnson will be after their money back soon). Brighton fans invade a pitch again, only this time in celebration of getting the draw they need to stay in the League, at the expense of Hereford, who move down into the Conference to be replaced by Macclesfield.

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David Hayes on a programme that missed the mark

Anyone coming to live in the north east soon encounters the distinct football culture of the area. Intense local rivalries divide, but there is also a wider ethic – the product of tradition, geography, and social experience – that bonds clubs and fans. An innovation in local media coverage last year was the (Tyne Tees) Football Show on Thursday nights. In many ways a familiar format – interviews with local heroes, filmed reports, past glories and disasters – it was saved from banality by the element of fan participation, the natural warmth of presenters Roger Tames and Dawn Thewlis, and the quality of the features.

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Non-League football in the north-east was once a rich source of playing talent for the professional game, but many of its clubs are in crisis now. Harry Pearson reports

Shotton Colliery Recreation Ground on a damp Saturday in January. Shotton Comrades are taking on Ferryhill Athletic. Beyond the perimeter fence on one side of the pitch is a small airfield. Every fifteen minutes or so light planes take off to drop sky divers. During dull moments of play you can watch the parachutists spiralling slowly earthward.

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