Month: July 2025

STAN SOUNDS 001: Newcastle Benfield

We’ve launched a collaborative Spotify playlist so Heaton Stan fans have a chance to decide the music we play before and during half time of home games at The Willow Park!

Here’s what we played at the 2-1 Jimmy Rowe Cup win over Newcastle Benfield on Saturday 5th July 2025!

If you want to join the collaborative Spotify playlist, here’s the link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6D1q7P20irFLM3RYngxQ2t?si=4c039bb1a3864845&pt=a6286f9b4b9c860199c4a1fa8110903e 

This playlist is basically an inbox folder where you can submit requests, which are then sifted through by media officer Liam, who then shuffles the playlist to generate enough music to fill an hour ahead of kick off and 15 minutes for half time, which is around 20-25 songs. Liam will try to make sure there’s a good mix of genres, styles and eras so there’s always at least something for everyone.

As you can see, there’s already a lot of music in the playlist so unfortunately we can’t guarantee that all requests will be fulfilled.

Here are some tips for selecting songs and making it past the sift:

  • Because of the limited amount of time, long songs will generally be passed over in favour of shorter songs, even if they’re masterpieces! This is to give everyone a fair chance, but also to make sure there’s a good variety of tracks in the playlist. We also know that not everyone has the same taste, so shorter songs means we get to cover all bases. If the track you want has a shorter edit or radio edit, that has a far better chance of appearing!
  • Because of the young age of some of our supporters, songs with explicit language will generally be passed over. If you’re able to find a clean version, or perhaps a track by the same artist which doesn’t contain explicit language, put that in instead!
  • We want a sound that reflects the eclectic tastes of our fanbase and we’d love to play hidden gems or tracks from lesser-known artists, but when putting songs into the playlist, think about the kind of upbeat energy we’re trying to generate before games. We want to generate a great, lively atmosphere at The Willow Park, so slower, sadder, overly-challenging will probably miss out. We also don’t want to upset the neighbours, so things like death metal and hard techno music will unfortunately likely fail to make the cut.

Keep the requests coming! We want the playlist to be generated by supporters as much as possible, so feel free to add things when you think of them and share the link amongst other supporters who you think might like to add to it. We again apologise if your request isn’t heard, but hopefully you get to hear some things you love, things you’ve not heard in a long time, or perhaps things you’d never heard before and end up loving!

If you’re not a Spotify user, you can email liamheatonstan@gmail.com and we can put the requests into the playlist on your behalf.

Cup draws published for the opening rounds of the 25/26 FA Cup, FA Trophy and FA Youth Cup

The draws have been made for the first two rounds of the 2025/26 editions of the Emirates FA Cup, The Isuzu FA Trophy and FA Youth Cup.

Heaton Stannington’s first competitive game of the season will be away to Whitley Bay in the Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round on the weekend of Saturday 2nd August 2025. The reward for the winners of that tie will be a home game against either Marske United or Carlisle City in the First Round Qualifying, which will take place on the weekend of Saturday 16th August 2025.

The Stan skip the Preliminary Round of The Isuzu FA Trophy which is played on the weekend of Saturday 23rd August 2025, and head straight to the First Round Qualifying, where they’ll face Emley at home. That tie will be played on the weekend of Saturday 6th September 2025.

Meanwhile, the Stan’s under-18 side will begin their FA Youth Cup journey for this season with an away game at Hebburn Town in the week commencing Monday 1st September 2025. The winners of that tie will host South Shields at home in the First Round Qualifying in the week commencing Monday 15th September 2025.

Keep across our website and social media channels where we’ll confirm dates, times, opponents, venues and ticketing information for all of these fixtures as soon as we can.

Raffle Sponsor Wanted

Non league football is associated with many things – a printed programme, a cheap pint, a greasy burger, a pin badge …. and of course a raffle!

We are seeking a sponsor for our match day raffle. This is a brand new sponsorship opportunity at The Willow Park which will see your brand appear on our new look raffle stand, the first thing which every match day visitor sees after they walk through the turnstile!

Exposure to over 10,000 visitors across the season and many more via social media. Your sponsorship will help us source better prizes for supporters who are visiting the Stan.

The cost of this opportunity is £1500 and includes two free season tickets.

If you would like to discuss this further, or any sponsorship interests you have, please contact us: info@heatonstan.co.uk