As the Northern League season finally gets underway, Newcastle Blue Star will be looking to make their first home appearance of the season and the opposition that lies in wait is none other than Yarm & Eaglescliffe.
With the pre-season campaign now fully behind us, Blue Star will look back on a mixed bag of results. Results may have not fully gone their way, but fitness levels would have certainly improved come the end of the summer skirmishes.
That fitness that would have been utilised in last weekend’s season opener, as Blue Star were handed a trip to Jarrow by the Northern League fixture computer. It is fair to say that the clash on the other side of the Tyne Tunnel had pretty much everything.
After finding themselves a goal behind on two separate occasions and also a man down with roughly half an hour of the game still to go, Brian Smith’s men would still manage to earn maximum points thanks to a 3-2 away win.
If mistakes were made in the first hour, the team were impeccable in the final 30 minutes. Once Dan Lanning had scored his second of the game to finally put Blue Star ahead, the defensive shutters had well and truly come down.
The performance was undoubtedly a baptism of fire for the Scotswood outfit but hopefully lessons will have been learned along the way. Now they will look for a more routine performance over Yarm & Eaglescliffe.
This time twelve months ago, Yarm & Eaglescliffe began their promotion bid, and like NE15’s finest they would work their way up into Step 6 just nine later. They may not have collected the North Riding League’s mantle of champions, but they still did enough to leave the 11th tier behind.
A scenario that means we have two teams looking to acclimatise to new surroundings in the English football pyramid and this upcoming clash will offer the perfect litmus test at the start of a brand new season.
Something which sets up this upcoming clash rather nicely. Awarm welcome goes out to the traveling Yarm & Eaglescliffeteam and support and for those who lend their voice to the home team, make sure to bring the noise throughout.