The Northern League Division Two season has finally come to an end. That is unless you are one of the four teams that have reached the playoffs and although Newcastle Blue Star will be disappointed not to have earned automatic promotion as champions, there is still a second route to Step 5.
A route that has two further fixtures remaining, win the playoff semi-final and the final on home soil no less and Blue Star will be joining Blyth Town at the level above in 2024/25. An equation that sounds simple on paper but as we all know, football matches are not played on such a surface.
However, the football matches that Marc Nash’s men have been contesting of late have been almost faultless. Seven games unbeaten before the visit of Horden Community Welfare on Friday night, five of those have ended in victory.
A purple patch of form that although saw 17 points added to the board from the last 21 on offer and also saw Blue Star end the season as the team at the top of the form table, also now loses a considerable amount of worth when it really matters.
Although the momentum that has been crafted by Nash’s players in the past couple of weeks has been a genuine positive for all involved, the form guide is now reset to zero for themselves and the three other teams in the playoffs.
That is not to say that the past couple of months have been for nothing – far from it if anything and without such an impressive run of results, the reward of a guaranteed home semi-final would have been in serious jeopardy.
With that said, there was no jeopardy going into last weekend’s trip to Thornaby and even though the pressure was off the shoulders of the visitors with second place already in the bag, it did not stop Blue Star eventually winning 3-0 at Teesdale Park.
A comfortable win before things start to get rather uncomfortable and with the two league meetings with Horden Community Welfare being rather tight, you wonder if the third part of the trilogy is going to be any different.
The first meeting back in September of last year saw Blue Star win 1-0 on the road in what was then a top of the table clash. Fast forward six months and the two teams were playing out an evenly contested stalemate at Scotswood.
Plenty of toil was on show during those two games and you would have to say that Blue Star have toiled at times this season. That though was then, this is now and with so much riding on Friday night, this encounter is not going to be for the faint hearted.
Something which sets up this upcoming clash rather nicely. A warm welcome goes out to the visiting Horden Community Welfare team and support and for those who lend their voice to the home team, make sure to bring the noise throughout.