Second largest crowd in western Europe? It’s at South Shields
TEN stops away from Newcastle city centre on the Metro, on a windswept industrial estate on the Tyne’s southern bank, the queue began forming two hours before kick-off. Newcastle’s match against Sheffield United might have been off but all were welcome at Mariners Park, the home of Northern Premier League club South Shields. The attendance for the seventhtier clash against FC United was a stunning 3,274, a record league crowd for South Shields and the second highest in western Europe on Saturday behind the 4,942 at Notts County. Perhaps it was the potential of bumper gates for one last weekend or the knowledge that many non-League clubs exist hand to mouth at the best of times and desperately needed this final cash boost. The debate as to whether this was a good idea amid a global health emergency didn’t matter here. Life went on — programmes were sold from a wooden hut, volunteers sold raffle tickets, pints were pulled and pies and chips were smothered with gravy. There were no face masks and indeed the only mention of corona all afternoon was one fan commenting that Asda had a promotion on 24 packs of a certain Mexican lager. The crowd was swollen by several hundred supporting FC United of Manchester, the club formed in protest at the Glazer takeover at Old Trafford, and nomadic fans desperate for their ‘fix’ including Blades fans who’d made a weekend of their visit to Newcastle and Swansea supporters who should have been at Middlesbrough. There was no chance of ‘social distancing’ here. Fans were packed five deep all the way around the pitch, jostling for a clear view of what turned out to be an excellent game. South Shields, top of the table, moved 12 points clear after a dramatic 5-3 win. ‘We’re gonna win the league,’ chanted the delighted home support. In theory, yes. But with non-League football likely to join the national shutdown this week, who knows when they’ll get to lift the trophy. The all-consuming feeling here was that this could be the last football in England for some time. But if this was the game’s last dance for a while, at least it was entertaining.