Posts Tagged ‘Northern Alliance League’

Cramlington United v AFC Burradon and New Fordley, Saturday 22nd August 2026, 2pm

August 28, 2026

On getting back from Sweden, I’d planned for a busy weekend with a game, a gig and a walk. The travelling had tired me out though and so we only managed the first two activities.

The gig was Martin Stephenson at the Waiting Room in Eaglescliffe on the Sunday night. We’d seen him there last year as part of a three piece. This time they had added a drummer who was the grandson of a Daintees drummer from the eighties. It all went very well. Although I had a stiff neck from looking upwards from my seat just a few inches from the stage.

On the Saturday I’d thought about going across to Blackburn to see the Boro as tickets were available on the gate. It’s a ground that I’ve been to a few times before though, including a game towards the back end of last season.

I decided to stay local instead and so Jen and I headed through the Tyne Tunnel for a game at Northburn Sports and Community Centre in Cramlington. We arrived early and got the final parking space.

It was three quid each to get in and we handed over the change for a couple of blind card entries. There wasn’t any food available other than crisps, so we limited ourselves to a coffee each. The eleventh tier Northern Alliance Premier Division fixture had attracted around eighty spectators, with a lot of them likely friends and family of the players.

There weren’t any seats other than a single memorial chair. Maybe the guy wasn’t popular enough to warrant a bench. Jen settled into the chair and I took up various positions on the perimeter fence. The grass was long and missing from patches in the goalmouths.

It was a niggly contest with both teams giving the ref stick. He wasn’t the best, but if he were, then he wouldn’t have been spending his afternoon overseeing an eleventh-tier fixture. I sometimes wonder whether players at this level genuinely believe that the officials should all be FIFA standard.

Cramlington went a goal up in the first minute when a Burradon defender diverted a cross into his own net. The hosts doubled their lead in the second half when some playing out from the back went tits up leaving the home striker an easy finish.

What had seemed like an easy victory for Cramlington was put at risk six minutes from time when Burradon pulled one back. I missed it hitting the back of the net as I was checking on the Boro score.

Matters got interesting with a minute remaining when the home keeper was sent off for wiping out a Burradon striker on the edge of the box. That spurred the visitors on and with four minutes of added time played, they equalized from a quickly taken corner. It was an unexpected comeback but, on reflection, a fair result overall.

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Gosforth Bohemians v West Moor and Jesmond, Wednesday 23rd April 2025, 6.30pm

May 1, 2025

I like to include something other than the match itself in these posts. Mainly to convince both of my readers that I’m leading a wildly interesting life, but also because there’s no real reason why anyone would have much of an interest in outdated football reports from lower-league games. And rightly so.

However, Jen and I had only returned from Sheffield the day before this game and had done little other than drink in the back garden. Best I can do then is add a picture of Soph’s dogs who had spent the night at our place.

This particular outdated report is from the eleventh tier Northern Alliance League, albeit their Premier Division. I selected it because we had a dawn flight from Newcastle Airport the next morning and Gosforth’s Benson Park ground was only a ten-minute drive from our airport hotel. The Northern Alliance is a feeder league to the Northern League, but neither Gosforth Bohemians or West Moor and Jesmond are challenging for promotion. Neither are threatened by relegation either, so there wasn’t much that either side had to play for.

Gosforth is quite posh. The houses around the ground all had nice gardens and the only noise from nearby was the sound of tennis balls being hit back and forward at the club behind one of the goals. I’m not sure about West Moor, but, despite never having knowingly been there, I’ve always considered Jesmond to be posh too.

Gosforth were in red and white hooped tops. It seemed more like a rugby shirt than a football kit. West Moor and Jesmond were in blue.

Despite it being free to get in, there were only about ten spectators, including Jen and I. I’m not even sure that all of them were there for the game. I think a woman who was sat at a picnic table may have been waiting for someone to finish their tennis session whilst the bloke with the black spaniel looked as if he regularly walked his dog around the edge of the field whether there was a match taking place or not.

The fixture had an end of season air to it with nothing much happening for the first half-hour. The visitors took the lead at that stage with an outside of the foot sliced finish which, if it were intended, was very impressive indeed. The opener spurred West Moor on and they added a second before the break with what was also a decent finish.

Play was a lot more expansive after the restart, or perhaps it was just that everyone simply got tired of defending. Either way, the goals flowed, and we finished up in rapidly fading light with a five-two away win.

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Rothbury v West Moor & Jesmond, Saturday 14th May 2022, 2.30pm

May 24, 2022

The Boro’s season is over, but there is still the odd game taking place. This one was the final fixture for both sides in the twelfth-tier Division One of the Northern Alliance League. It was pretty much a dead game in that neither side were involved in matters at either end of the table and West Moor were guaranteed a sixth-place finish regardless of the result. Rothbury had a little more to play for in that if results elsewhere went their way, then they might move up from ninth position to seventh. I doubt that it kept them awake the night before.

The drive up to Armstrong Park was a scenic as it gets. I think that it just about borders the Northumberland National Park. It’s a fair distance though, around seventy-five minutes from Teesside, although as I didn’t have anything planned for the afternoon it was no big deal.

That morning Isla and I had been to have another look at the racehorse. We watched him on the gallops and had a chat with some of the stable staff. Apparently, he’s not one for the minimum distances so won’t make his debut until later in the season when the races get longer. Oddly enough, he doesn’t like carrots. Weirdo horse.

There was a clubhouse, I think, at Armstrong Park or maybe it was just the changing rooms. A few people were stood in front of it, but most were sat along one side of the pitch on a raised embankment area. The smart folks had brought camping chairs with them but most, like me, had found a spot where a level piece of ground met the slope so that there was somewhere to angle your legs downwards. As usual there were dogs in attendance including a spaniel and an enormous Dalmatian.

Rothbury were in red, with West Moor in blue and white. They each had to volunteer a sub to run the line, although the Rothbury lad was so biased that after a while the ref, who rarely strayed from the centre circle, just ignored him. The lack of exertion from the man in the middle wasn’t only limited to covering ground, but extended to whistle blowing. If he could let play go on he did do and on the occasions when forced to blow his whistle he did it so quietly that it undermined any authority that he may have had.

The visitors went two up in the first half, with Rothbury pulling one back early in the second half before West Moor rattled in another two to make the game safe. There was a late consolation for Rothbury and it finished four-two.

At the end the ref continued his minimal effort approach by blowing just twice to bring the game and the Northern Alliance season to an end.

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