County host Blyth Spartans on Saturday in a 3pm kick-off and, ahead of this Vanarama National League North tie, County Tweet-meister Gareth Evans has put together five factoids on Blyth for you.
- 1. Uh oh – the mighty Spartans! They’re putting a few opponents to the sword, eh?
Indeed! And just like the iconic, bladed-weapon-wielding infantry of Ancient Greece from which Blyth’s football club took its suffix, at the instigation of founder Fred Stoker in 1899, they are also well on the march following their promotion, as Northern Premier League champions, last term.
Under the guidance of much-loved former County striker Alun Armstrong, the Spartans of our time are still giving it their all on the modern-day battlefields that we call pitches – and the
National League North’s most northerly outfit will advance into SK3 very handily placed in third.
- 2. ‘The most famous non-league football team in the world’, too – according to some?
Former FA Secretary Ted Croker (who held office from 1973 to 1989) originally coined the phrase, and it has stuck. Everybody, of course, knows the club’s instantly-distinguishable name, but
Croker’s epithet would never have been earned without the Spartans’ bold footballing deeds.
After playing friendlies for the first two years of their existence, the Spartans began competitive life in 1901, since when they have been members, and won titles, of the East Northumberland League, the Northern Alliance, the North Eastern League and the Northern League – prior to
joining the Northern Premier League in 1994. And they have only ever been relegated once: when their first stay in the (then) Conference North came to an end after six years during 2011/12.
Impressive though it is, their league exploits do tend, however, to get overshadowed by their FA Cup adventures. The Spartans have played in no fewer than 51 ties (excluding replays) at the ‘proper’ stages of the competition – most famously reaching the Fifth Round in 1977/78 – and left a trail of slain Football League opponents along the way. Twelfth Man Representatives of a certain age will remember County as one of them, following a single-goal Second Round defeat at Blyth’s Croft Park during 1971/72 – although we have been successful on the three other occasions when the two sides have been drawn against each other (most recently at Edgeley Park in 1995, when our line-up included in its strike-force a certain ‘A Armstrong’!).
- 3. So, Croft Park won’t be a new ground for absolutely everyone when we visit next April?
Not as such – but any Hatters who did make the trek up to Blyth 46 years ago this December, or, less probably, for either of County’s other previous Cup-ties there in 1934 and 1958, will notice, when the time comes for the final away-fixture of our campaign next April, that the ground has undergone extensive redevelopment since. Gone is the old ash terracing, to be replaced by concrete – and all four sides are now covered.
Croft Park has been home to the Spartans since 1909, when the club was 10 years old. By way of neat historical symmetry, both the very first game there and a Centenary Match in 2009 involved friendlies against Newcastle United – with the ‘Magpies’ winning 4-2 on each occasion.
- 4. How about County players with a link to the Spartans… apart from the obvious one?!
Well, just so as not to ignore the obvious one, Gateshead-born ‘Super Al’, of course, with 160 appearances and 49 goals to his name as a Hatter between 1994 and 1998, was a firm favourite at EP, before generating our record transfer sale when he joined Middlesbrough for £1.6 million. However, Blyth’s current boss, who assumed the managerial reins just over a year ago, never took to the field for the Spartans – despite having settled back in his native North-East, and turned out briefly at non-league level (for the now-defunct Newcastle Blue Star, in 2007), towards the end of his career as a player.
But going back much further in time reveals one player who did ply his playing trade for both clubs. Billy Newton, a wing-half, was a pre-Great War Spartan in 1913/14, as well as a post-Great War Hatter over two spells from 1927-31 and, as a 40-year-old, in 1932/33. He was later also County’s caretaker manager twice, in 1952 and 1960.
- 5. Reckon that the final thirds at EP may see some action this Saturday?
Quite possibly. Thirteen League games involving the Spartans have already produced a whopping 58 goals. And their two most recent matches – a 5-4 reverse at Kidderminster and last
weekend’s 6-3 home triumph over Nuneaton – both saw one net or the other bulge nine times. Only the one scoreless draw to our name so far, too. This surely could not be a second… could it?!
