I’m sorry to bring this up, but this recent run of wins in the league, Hebburn excepted, and by all accounts that was very unlucky, has had me looking at the whereabouts of clubs who ply their trade in the Northern Premier East Division. Just starting to worry a bit that’s all, as we rise relentlessly up the league. I don’t know if the lads’ noses are starting to bleed but mine certainly is. Anyway, there are some interesting clubs amongst the denizens and likely denizens of the Evo-Stik East, to give them their official title. It’s still a bit of a long shot, and God knows how we would manage if we end up elevated to glory, but it does no harm to have a bit of a look see has always been my policy. A few we know well, and a few we know by reputation. Nowt to worry about in football terms I don’t think, and Morpeth, Marske, Shields and others prove that in recent seasons, as does our own trips out and about in the Cup and Vase. But still, some are a bit of a trip, and no mistake. Interesting times we live in. We, though not specifically me, would certainly get to know the way up and down the A1. We shall have to wait and see if Consett and Bishops can revive or Hebburn or Stockton push past us on the run in. Fingers crossed, but I’m not sure which way.
Elsewhere in the local football world I see that the Durham Women’s team are going well and had a moment in the limelight last week when a big crowd turned out to see their FA Cup game against Man City. Good luck to them and I’m sorry they got narrowly beat, but It brought a couple of other clubs to mind.
The game was at New Ferens Park which got me to thinking about the current plight of Durham City FC. Exiled to Willington, not a million miles admittedly from the fair City of Durham, but not in the City, and struggling badly, to be frank. Only a few years after briefly plying their trade in the Evo-Stik Premier Division they find themselves adrift at the bottom of the Northern League Second Division and possibly facing relegation to the Wearside or Northern Alliance. Maybe a salutary lesson not to fly too high. Always been a good and respected club Durham, and I wish them well.
The other club brought to mind by Durham Women’s exploits was Sunderland Ladies. I offer no comment on the contrast between women and ladies, but the treatment of Sunderland by the FA, demoted two levels by the authorities, apparently for not having access to enough money, dodgy or otherwise, could not be called ladylike in any sense, although those responsible at the FA may well be described by others as something less complimentary.