Date: Tuesday 18th September 2018
Venue: Mariners Park, Shaftesbury Road, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE32 3UP
Kick Off: 7.45pm
Competition: Integro League Challenge Cup
Highlights: Highwaymen TV
Morpeth make the short trip to South Shields on Tuesday evening as they take on the Mariners in the Integro League Challenge Cup 1st Round.
History
After two title winning seasons in the Northern Alliance, and an appearance in the quarter-finals of the FA Vase in 1976, Shields joined the Wearside League winning the league at the first attempt in 1977 and completing a league and cup double by winning the Durham Challenge Cup against Consett at Roker Park, the first county cup win for the club since the reformation. The team however was broken up as the club did not have the facilities needed to meet the requirements of joining the Northern League. So the club spent the next 15 years languishing in mid table in the Wearside League while the club searched for a suitable home.
Ultimately, chairman John Rundle and his family provided the long wished-for new ground by purchasing the run down and vandalized facilities next door to the Filtrona factory, the ground was refurbished and ready for use in 1992, the team thanks to the management of Bobby Elwell and the goals of striker Steve Harkus responded by winning a double of the Wearside League for the first time since 1977 and the Sunderland Shipowners Cup.
In 1994–95 the club won the Wearside League for the second time in three years and were promoted to Northern League Division Two. Shields were quickly promoted again to Northern League Division One the following season after finishing runners up, the club enjoyed a 4 year stay in the 1st division.
The club however built on the success of the previous season and won promotion back to Division 1 finishing runners-up to Penrith. Shields then settled down as a solid mid-table Division one side with a big highlight being winning the Northern League Cup in 2010 after beating Ashington 6–5 on penalties after a 2–2 draw at Dunston, the club’s first honour since joining the Northern League.
In the summer of 2015 however, a local businessman by the name of Geoff Thompson bought the original Filtrona Park from John Rundle, moved the club back in, renamed the ground Mariners Park and became the new club chairman.
In the FA Vase final on 21 May 2017, South Shields’s opposition was in the form of the Northern Counties East League champions Cleethorpes Town in which Shields played in front of an estimated 14,000 of their own fans. Shields went on to win 4-0 to lift the FA Vase.
In this time, South Shields also managed to use their games in hand to overturn a 17 point deficit to North Shields at the top of the Northern League to win it with 108 points meaning that when the FA Vase was won, South Shields had completed a ‘quadruple’ of trophies.
Last Match
On Saturday, South Shields were in action and recorded an emphatic 3-0 victory at Matlock Town. Gavin Cogdon and Josh Gillies had fired the Mariners ahead in the first before David Foley completed the victory in the second half. The win was enough to see Shields maintain their lead at the top of the Evo-Stik Premier Division.
Morpeth made the trip down to Lincolnshire to take on undefeated Stamford AFC and the Highwaymen made their way back to Northumberland with all 3 points. Joe Walton scored his third penalty in as many games before Jeff Henderson doubled the lead. Sam Grass pulled a goal back to set up a frantic finale but Morpeth were able to hold on.
