Spartans final pre-season fixture see’s Nobby’s side travel over to the wrong side of the water to take on fellow Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division side Hebburn Town – 10 days before we face them in the league.
In their first season in this league after winning the Pitching In Northern Premier League First Division East last season, Hebburn have focussed on adding experience to their team this summer for the most part.
Former Morpeth man Michael Turner arrived early on, along with ‘combative’ midfielder Liam Noble. While Turner is an all round quality full back, Noble is more of a deep lying playmaker who loves a ping a ball up to a forward. His discipline has let him down in the past though, and that’s me being kind about it.
A big addition for them this summer was Joe Posthill, who was a very sought after player following his spell at Shildon. With him on the right flank feeding the ball into the NPL East’s golden boot winner Amar Purewal and the likes of Olly Martin, Robbie Spence and of the best young prospects in the region in Aaron Thompson alongside him, they could be on course for a very good season.
With goalkeeper Kieran Hunter signed up, along with Callum Dobson who impressed at Blue Star last year on top of the experience of Groves, Elsdon, Devitt and Jack Donaghy bring to the side – it’s difficult to say Hebburn have any true weak points one the team.
As well as a solid team, they have one of the best young managers in the region in Daniel Moore. Racking up a 59% win rate at Shildon across an impressive 223 games, he also led them to the Cleater Cup and Durham Challenge Cup. Promotion would follow in 2021, before he left for Hebburn in 2022.
Winning promotion at the second time of asking after losing out in the play offs last year, Moore will no doubt be on the radar of times higher up the pyramid if his side start well this season.
Thus far this summer they’ve had a bit of a rough time of it, losing most of their games early on – though they have met some strong opposition, especially early on in their pre-season campaign.
A 6-1 defeat to Scottish side Dumbarton would be followed by a 7-1 defeat to Gateshead, though they did rotate a full strength side on at half time. A 3-1 defeat against Darlington would be followed up with a 5-1 defeat away at Garforfh Town, which you could argue was the poorest result of their pre-season.
They’d bounce back with a 2-0 win over Northern League champions Bishop Auckland, before drawing 0-0 with Heaton Stannington. Last night (Thursday) they went down 2-1 to a fairly strong Sunderland XI, with what appeared to be first team players with some U23’s. So come Saturday, they may throw a few trialists and youngsters out against us.
With a number of the trialists who featured earlier in the pre-season reportedly now binned off, we may see a new batch of players brought in on Saturday who’ve been at other clubs higher up the pyramid on trial.
It’s expected (or more rumoured) that a number of new players should be on their way to Croft Park in the coming days, some of them being loans from teams within the National League. Hopefully these get sorted ASAP, so Nobby can spend some time with them in training next week and work on a game plan for next week.
Recruitment seems to have been all over the shop more so than ever before, with a whole host of people at the club and elsewhere reportedly involved in trying to bring players in this summer.
Hopefully mistakes are learnt from this summer, and going forward this regime have a more clear and concise plan in future when it comes to attracting players to the club.
Come Saturday though, we really need to start displaying some quality football. Going forward we’ve been all over the place so far in preseason, so a good attacking display would go down a treat and boost the confidence of supporters.
Little needs to be said to sell Hebburn, as it’s class. The bar and the subsequent terrace is one of the best around in respect of this league, and the NE in general.
The pints are cheap enough and the locals have always been rather welcoming, which is unusual for South Tyneside. The bait hut just outside the clubhouse is top notch as well, so it’s definitely worth arriving early for some scran and a few pints.
Getting there via public transport is simple enough. Jump on the 308 or 309 to Whitley Bay and then the Metro will take you more or less straight there (provided their are no leaves on the track or someone hasn’t jumped in front of one). The walk from the metro station to the ground is only about 10 mins.
If you’re driving up, the A19 and through the tunnel is probably your best bet. Though you’ll likely struggle to get parked up, and the locals in the estate don’t take kindly to strangers.
As for admission prices, they’ll be as follows – and they take card or cash on the gate.
£5 – adults
£3 – concessions
£1 – U16
Safe travels to anyone venturing over to the dark side! Hopefully we’ll see some of you for a pint beforehand and witness a good performance!
