Newcastle Blue Star vs North Shields (30/04/2026)

Although the road to Wembley has been in the spotlight these past few days, it is the road to Whitley Bay that concerns Newcastle Blue Star and after recording a 10^th successive win in all competitions on Saturday, that victory means they will be playing for silverware in just a few hours.

That perfect ten came about after a 3-1 win at Birtley and if you were to stack each of Blue Star’s recent successive victories against each other, Saturday’s success will arguably be the pick of the bunch.

Not only because Paul Brayson’s men had to come from behind in order to book their place in tonight’s League Cup final but they had to defend for a large period of the second half with just nine men.

Jakub Zych and Richie Slaughter sent off for separate incidents in one of a handful of flashpoints throughout the game, their departure from the field coming after Birtley were reduced to 10 men in the first half.

Blue Star a man down but more importantly a goal ahead halfway through the second half. It was going to need an incredible amount of resilience to see them over the line. There was resilience and still time for a final flourish from youngster Jay Richardson.

After scoring his first senior goal against Newcastle University earlier in the week, the youngster found himself with enough time and space and more importantly showed enough composure to slot the ball past the Birtley goalkeeper to make it 3-1.

Huge celebrations in the crowd, huge relief for those Blue Star players left on the field at the final whistle and although they would have afforded themselves a small amount of time to punch the air in celebration, the focus quickly pivots to tonight’s League Cup final.

An encounter that will see Blue Star go up against local rivals North Shields and with the two teams meeting just a fortnight ago, the dramatic 3-2 home win at the KD Stadium is still a present memory for both teams.

For North Shields they will be keen to exact revenge for their recent league reverse. For Blue Star, they will look to top off their season with not only an 11^th successive win in all competitions but also another piece of silverware for the club’s trophy cabinet. 

Something which sets up this clash rather nicely indeed. A big thanks to Whitley Bay for the upcoming hospitality and for those attending from an away perspective, safe travels both there and back.