Saturday
5th May 2018. Half an hour after Stoke City’s relegation had been
confirmed, another burning issue in English football’s pyramid system was being
decided 170 miles to the north east and 10 divisions below the Premier League.
My club, Newcastle Benfield, two days after we’d lost a league cup semi-final
on penalties, were playing our 14th Northern League Division 1 game
in 26 days at the end of a rain-ravaged season that had promised much, but
ultimately left us empty handed. With an injury decimated, exhausted and
disappointed squad of only 13 players, we had been cast in the role of dutiful
handmaidens, required to dance barefoot at the coronation of already promoted
champions elect Marske United. They duly garnered the point needed for the
title and the vast majority of the 388 crowd burst onto the pitch at full time,
just before 5pm, to carry their heroes shoulder high around the charmingly
ramshackle Mount Pleasant ground, but at least we hadn’t lain down and died.
The game ended 0-0 and we’d came within 6 inches of denying them the title with
a late shot from our number 9, who’d run his blood to water all game, which had
scraped the outside of the post with home keeper Rob Dean a stranded onlooker.
So
what? Well, the name of our number 9 is Jack Devlin and he’s back at Benfield
after a year at Stoke City, via a brief period with the upwardly mobile South
Shields FC for whom he made 5 substitute appearances, without scoring. He may
not have made the grade with Stoke, but the improvement in his touch, awareness
and overall fitness is remarkable. He was a very good player at this level
before, but now he’s an exceptional one.
Jack
arrived at our home of Sam Smith’s Park (nothing to do with the Tadcaster
brewery; this Sam Smith was the chief executive of Rington’s Tea Importers) in
November 2016, having previously played for Easington Colliery Welfare and then
North Shields in the Northern League, following his release from Sunderland’s
academy. I’d first become aware of him when he scored an outrageous lob from 40
yards out, almost on the touchline, when North Shields battered us at our place
4-1 in April of that year. It became clear from talking to Shields fans that
Jack was desperate to get back into the professional game; in that sense, he
was very much the individual rather than a team player. Blessed with lightning
speed and instinctive finishing, he was a marvel at this level and he knew it.
When Shields left him on the bench for a couple of games, he decided to leave;
passing scouts don’t recommend those left out of the starting XI.
Jack’s
first stint at Benfield comprised 7 games and a solitary goal; the winner in a
4-1 triumph over Marske United on his second appearance. He provided explosive
pace and the ability to forge chances from nowhere, much to the gratitude of
our 40-year-old centre forward, ex Newcastle, Reading and Cardiff striker Paul
Brayson, who has hit 40 goals in every one of his 6 seasons with us. In mid-January 2017, Jack missed a midweek
league cup tie at Ashington. Basking in the joy of a 3-2 win, I’d assumed he
was cup tied from his North Shields days. Not true; he was eligible but had
understandably cried off, having accepted the chance of a week’s trial with
Stoke. He was back on the Saturday for a league game, also against Ashington,
but didn’t feature in the 5-2 win as the trial had been successful and he’d
been offered an 18-month deal. You don’t risk that opportunity by allowing a 17
stone centre half to tattoo your calves for 90 minutes. As Jack hadn’t been on a contract with us, we
received nothing for his services, but he left Benfield with our very best
wishes and the whole club was elated when Jack marked his debut for Stoke
reserves in a Staffordshire Senior Cup tie, by grabbing the winner against
Rushall Olympic, signalling the start of a stellar career as a Premier League
striker. Then again, perhaps it didn’t.
Jack
is from south of Sunderland, so he didn’t have any real connection with
Benfield, other than playing alongside some of his contemporaries from the
Black Cats’ academy, such as Dylan McEvoy and James Martin, who are similarly
trying to rebuild their careers with us. This is partly because of help from an
agency for recently released trainees, Catalyst
4 Soccer; run by Neil Saxton, the son of Bobby, the former Newcastle and
Sunderland assistant manager. It also helps that Sax was once our manager I
suppose. Everything we’d heard about Jack’s progress was positive, though
admittedly it came second hand. Thus, it was a complete shock that one of the
casualties following the sacking of Mark Hughes was Jack. His contract was
terminated by mutual consent; 5 months early, at the end of January 2018 and he
swiftly joined South Shields on a non-contract basis. As South Shields are
currently celebrating their third successive promotion to the Evostik Premier
Division, with crowds bolstered by disaffected Sunderland fans and regularly
exceeding 2,000, it seemed a good place for Jack to rebuild and try again.
After all, he only turned 20 in April 2018.
For
some reason, it didn’t work out at Mariners Park and Jack returned to Benfield,
coming on as a surprise substitute in a thumping 4-0 away win at Seaham Red
Star on a freezing Tuesday night in early March. He marked his return with a superb finish to
round off the scoring. Darting from the arc of the penalty area, he came near
post and hammered home with his left foot, having shown a speed of thought far
in excess of anything defenders at this level are used to. In total, he appeared in 16 of the final 18
games of the season for us, including 2 substitute appearances in his first two
games, and scored 9 goals. The highlights included a glorious hat trick in a
5-1 demolition of Bishop Auckland, with the third being the kind of sublime
chip from the edge of the area that only the truly gifted can score at any
level, as well as an unerring finish in the last minute to give us a 2-1 win
over Dunston UTS. The twin aspects of flair and composure needed for those two
goals are what sets Jack above the mundane level of the goal poacher or domineering
aerial pugilist, seen so often in non-league.
As
I said, Jack missed 2 games for us; we lost them both to FA Vase finalists
Stockton Town and then away to Shildon on Tuesday and Thursday of the
penultimate week of the season. He had a pretty good absence note, as he was
playing in a reserve game and then training with Hartlepool United. On his
return, he seemed pessimistic about his chances; not that he’d played badly,
but the budgetary realities of a side who narrowly avoided going bust during
their first season in the Conference mean there’s not a great deal of cash to
throw around, especially to a raw 20-year-old who has been let go by a pair of
professional clubs in the past. Of course, I’d love to see Jack back in the
blue and white hoops of Benfield next season as we try to build on a sixth-place
finish in the league, two cup semi-final exits and a last 16 spot in the FA
Vase. However, as a football fan, I know he could and almost certainly will
find a home at a more exalted level than Northern League Division 1. It’s just
a shame Stoke City never saw the best of him and a symbiotic relationship
wasn’t established to help him realise his full potential.
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