MARINERS REELING IN THEIR BIG EFL DREAM

AFTER three consecutive promotions, South Shields are targeting three more with the unveiling of Project EFL.

The ambitious Northern Premier League club have gone from strength to strength since chairman Geoff Thompson took over the club in 2015 and now he’s pushing for the next big leap.

Tyneside-based Thompson moved South Shields back into its old ground that year, the newly named Mariners Park, which has seen attendances rise to an average of 1,400 with the chairman believing the club has the potential to reach the Football League.

“This is a tremendously exciting time for the club after a period of almost unparalleled success,” he said. “We are now looking to take the next step in our journey and want the community to feel like they are a huge part of things.

“They are absolutely central to our ambitions, because without the support of both the business community and general public, we will not get to where we want to be.

“To talk about reaching the Football League as a ‘dream’ would be incorrect, because it implies that we don’t fully believe we can get there. We absolutely do believe we can, and hope many others in South Tyneside and beyond share that belief and ambition.

“Every decision we make at the club – on and off the field – will now be made with Project EFL in mind. We want to grow our fanbase and network of sponsors to help us achieve what would be an incredible thing for the town.” While South Shields have become a force on the pitch, the aim for Thompson is to continue building links with the community and bring new local businesses on board. The club created its own academy last summer in conjunction with Sunderland College as students combine their studies and football. More than 250 youngsters are involved with the club’s charitable arm, the South Shields FC Foundation, which runs the club’s junior teams while the South Shields FC Futures Academy, a new initiative launched this year, caters for 11 to 16year-olds in partnership with Mortimer College. Ultimately these links are geared towards helping the club to achieve Football League status but the road out of Non-League will only be tougher now. It won’t be quite so easy as the club has found blitzing it’s way up from Step 6.

“We have a tremendous team of staff who are all working towards our targets and delivering our ambitions,” Thompson added. “We can’t do it alone, though, and we want people to feel engaged enough to get behind this.

“Imagine how brilliant it would be to reach the Football League. It’s certainly possible.”