Greetings all. We hope this finds you well. I’m finishing this newsletter off the day after our Mark Crossley night, which those of you who attended will hopefully agree was a great success and a night enjoyed by all. We certainly enjoyed it and hope to do another later in the year. Watch this space.

I’m hoping Terry got Mark to read and sign the relevant documents before he pulled any pints.

Football update

Well what can we say, I mean if you don’t know, where have you been? After what must have been such a disappointing end of the season for Dean and the lads, the bounced back to turn in a phenomenal performance in front of a fourth record breaking crowd in the semi final against a much stronger Easington side to earn the right to play Tow Law in the play off final. I don’t think that day is going to be one that anyone who was there will forget, in front of an incredible crowd of 1091 (yes there went that record for a 5th time) the lads came back from 1 – 0 down to win their place in Northern Football League Division 1, courtesy of a 94th minute header from Ryan Bailey, the longest serving player on the pitch.

It’s been an incredible season for us, seeing the crowds grow in numbers we couldn’t imagine they would thanks to the success that Dean, Andy, Scott, Tom and the players have brought us on the pitch and we’ve had to adapt off the pitch very quickly. We’ve put measures in place to cope as best we can this season, but behind the scenes the committee have been working hard on more long term changes to both improve the match day experience for every one who comes to the games and to help our loyal band of match day volunteers.

We will update you on the changes we are making as we go along but the first big change is well under way, please see below.

Away from the first team Russ and his Heaton Stan A team have had what I’m sure he will agree was a successful first season in the Northern Alliance second Division following their promotion last season. Russ has utilised a very young side at times and has brought a number of players through from Heaton Hawks, finishing 7th in the league. Russ will be holding his awards night early in June and we will bring you news of the award winners once announced.

Ticket Office

As mentioned about the first of the ground improvements for next season is the news ticket office. It will be placed on the same spot where the original ticket  office was and those of you who have been to the club recently will have seen that the ground has been cleared and prepped ready for the new buildings arrival on Thursday. The unit is a 6m x 3m timber clad, see below for similar example, providing sufficient space in two rooms for a ticket office and store room combined and general football admin office. 

Stan Scran

Another improvement we will be making over the close season is the refit of the “Stan Scran” match day snack hut. This is due to start imminently and it will include both the facility itself and an upgrade of the equipment.    

Merchandise

Back on the football front we’ll be restocking the merchandise ready for summer, with a range of polo shirts, t-shirts and bucket hats heading up some of our new items that will be incoming soon. We will also have some new mugs in stock shortly celebrating our promotion. Keep an eye out on our comms so you can keep up to date with what the thinking person is wearing in NE6 this summer.

Finally, just a  reminder that we will be holding a day of celebration in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee, we hope you can join us. Please see below for details.