Wednesday 6 June 2018

The Devlin You Know

Despite the Scottish Juniors season sill being on-going and the World Cup on the horizon, many clubs are getting ready for 2018/2019. My beloved Newcastle Benfield have already made a few signings. Here's a piece from Stoke City's Duck fanzine about a young striker, Jack Devlin, who has spent time both in the Potteries and at Sam Smith's Park -:



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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