Stan by Stan

It's always busy towards the end of the season; cup finals and the like, not to mention the Northern League Easter groundhop. On Good Friday, we hosted Hazlerigg victory 2 Newcastle Medics 0 in the Tyneside Amateur League John Hampson Memorial Trophy final. I wrote a few notes about that for the programme, as I did for Jarrow Roofing's programme against us on the Saturday morning leg of the groundhop. We lost 1-0 and I wasn't there as I was playing for Winstons in our narrow 8-0 win the Over 40s at home to Rolls Royce. Also in the programme, Michael Hudson wrote a lovely bit about The Stan. Here's all that stuff now, with photos by Paul Mosley (1) and Michael Hudson (2 & 3)....

Following The Stan in 2013/2014

It’s a great honour to be asked again by Paul Mosley to pen an article for this programme. I’ve known Paul in his Tyneside Amateur League guise for a few years now (I’ve known him for considerably longer than that as he did his A Levels at the College where I worked, about a decade ago now) and was always pleased to contribute a few words when the TAL finals were held at my previous club Percy Main Amateurs in previous seasons.

I left Percy Main last summer and made the step up to the Northern League with my local side Heaton Stannington; having been a High Heaton resident for the past 16 years now, I was delighted to be offered and even more delighted to accept the role of Press Officer and Programme Editor with The Stan. I’m equally pleased to see that Paul has followed me to NE7 by bringing a couple of the TAL finals to Grounsell Park and we’re particularly pleased to welcome you all here tonight. Let’s hope we can put the cap on a truly Good Friday, though I somehow doubt we’ll match the crowds that will have turned out to see the Northern League Division 2 title decider between North Shields and West Allotment Celtic at Raply Gardener Park, or the big local derby at Hillheads in Division 1 between who we must now learn to call Leon Ryan’s Whitley Bay and Steve Bowey’s massively improved Benfield side. If I’m looking a little weary, it’s because I’m intending to take in both of those games as well.

Tomorrow afternoon I’ve sensibly knocked back the offer of a spare seat at SJP; it may not have been putting money into Ashley’s pocket, but I’d still feel defrauded as a Free ticket Mag, so I’m contemplating the love-in between Washington and Seaham Red Star instead. I’ll be up early though, as The Stan are in action at 11am on the next leg of the Northern League groundop, in what will be our final away fixture of the season. However, if you like it here, please drop by next Tuesday at 7.30 for the visit of Alnwick Town or next Saturday 26^th (the day after the other Tyneside amateur League final we are hosting), when we ring donw the curtain on our season with the visit of Washington.

At the time of writing, it seems as if tomorrow’s encounter could be The Roofing’s most crucial game of the season, but for The Stan it has less significance as, barring a mathematical miracle, we’ll end this campaign in fifth place. Far from feeling despondent that we’ve missed out on promotion, we are justly proud of all that has been achieved both on and off the pitch. Those of you who’ve not visited the ground in a while will know what I mean, as you’re probably staggered at the transformation of the place.

2013/2014 has been both a steep learning curve and a matter of enormous pride seeing just how far The Stan have come in twelve short months. One second division player who really ought to have known better (no names; no pack drill), forecast on the dreadful and divisive non league zone that The Stan would endure “a long hard season;” well, we have, but not in the way he suggested. We’ve actually enjoyed it!! 

Being frank, our squad has been a credit to the club all season.  Putting playing matters to one side, the facts are that a year after our arrival from the Northern Alliance, Grounsell Park now boasts state of the art floodlights and a smart stand, with plenty of scope for the installation of extra seats should they be needed. In addition, a popular and idiosyncratic programme sells out each home game, where hot and cold food is readily available when at one time the only refreshments to be got came from the Maxpax machine at ATS next door. The hard work of our vibrant, growing band of volunteers is mirrored by the fact a team that had half a dozen watching them a few years back now has the second highest average attendance in the division, because we’re all proud to Follow The Stan; you’d be very welcome to join us, especially with 3 hand pulled real ales in the bar at £2.35 a pint!!

Heaton Stannington by Heaton Stannington

Today’s game is the final away fixture in our first season back in the Northern League. At the time of writing, it seems as if today could be The Roofing’s most crucial game of the season, but for us it has less significance as, barring a mathematical miracle, we’ll end the campaign in fifth place. Far from feeling despondent that we’ve missed out on promotion, we are justly proud of all that has been achieved both on and off the pitch. It has been both a steep learning curve and a matter of enormous pride just how far The Stan have come in twelve short months. One second division player who really ought to have known better, forecast on the dreadful non league zone that The Stan would endure “a long hard season;” well, we have, but not in the way he suggested. Being frank, our squad has been a credit to the club all season.  Putting playing matters to one side, the facts are that a year after our arrival from the Northern Alliance, Grounsell Park now boasts state of the art floodlights and a smart stand, with plenty of scope for the installation of extra seats should they be needed. In addition, a popular and idiosyncratic programme sells out each game, where hot and cold food is available when the only refreshments used to be available from the Maxpax machine at ATS next door. The hard work of our vibrant, growing band of volunteers is mirrored by the fact a team that had half a dozen watching them a few years back now has the second highest average attendance in the division, because we’re all proud to Follow The Stan. Especially with 3 hand pulled real ales available at £2.30 a pint!

Heaton Stannington by Jarrow Roofing

Heaton Stannington go back to 1910, the year the club first affiliated to the Northumberland FA.  Northumberland Amateur Cup winners in 1937 and Tyneside League runners-up in 1938-39,  the black and whites played their first seven seasons of Northern League football either side of World War II, but had to wait 61 years before starting on their eighth. 

Admitted to the Northern League in a second round of voting – polling eight to Chilton Colliery’s five to become the first Northumbrian member club since Newcastle ‘A’ left for the North Eastern League in 1906  – the truncated 1939-40 season saw Heaton defeat South Bank 7-2 – Colin Seymour, son of England international and Newcastle United title-winner Stan Seymour, among the scorers - and draw with Amateur Cup holders Bishop Auckland in a League Cup tie watched by 1,283 at St James’ Park.   When the League resumed in 1945, the Stan had to sit out the first season as non-playing members due to the continuing presence of the military at Newton Park, returning to finish eighth in 1946-47.

Low gates and heavy transport costs began to take their toll, the club slumping to the foot of the table and quitting the league for a fortnight in the summer of 1949.  Despite reaching a League Cup semi-final in 1951-52, they could rise no higher than the bottom three in any of their final five seasons.  In 1952 they resigned their position, were replaced by Durham City, and dropped into the Northern Football Alliance.
Twice beaten finalists in the Northumberland Senior Cup, the club owed its continued survival to stalwarts like Bob Grounsell – player and secretary during his 60 years at Newton Park, which was later renamed in his honour – and Bill Colwill.  In 1982 a hike in the ground rent forced another resignation – this time from the Wearside League, which they’d joined from the Alliance a decade before. A year later it took a High Court case to fend off the threat of a supermarket being built over what had been the club’s home pitch since 1934. 

The legal victory was doubly important, leaving the club with ownership of the ground. After rejoining the Northern Football Alliance in 1986, long-serving manager Derek Thompson led his team to back-to-back Premier League titles and added both the League Cup and Northumberland Senior Benevolent Bowl in 2012-13, capping a triumphant year in which they also hosted the Gabon U23 team in a warm-up game for the 2012 London Olympics.

Although their own promotion bid has tailed off recent weeks, a 1-0 win at West Allotment Celtic, a goalless draw with North Shields and, of course, November’s 4-3 home triumph against the Roofers provide ample evidence of the threat the Stan pose this afternoon.  Helped by 30+ league goals from former Hibernian junior Jonathan Wright (who also found time to score three in one start and three substitute appearances for Vase finalists West Auckland Town), Thompson’s side have performed superbly in what everyone here at Roofing hopes is just the first of many successful seasons back in the Northern League.