36. Hebburn Sports & Social Ground-Hebburn Town

Hebburn Town 2-2 Northallerton Town
Northern League Division Two
5.11.11

Admission: Adults: £3.50 Children: £2
Programme: £1 (20pp)
Attendance: 57
Capacity: 900
Seated: 150
Covered: 150
Town: Jarrow, Tyne & Wear
Floodlights: Yes
Shop: No
Step: 10

After a number of Saturdays visiting new grounds as a neutral I was back to supporter duty with my first Northallerton away game of the season. Today we were at Hebburn Town whose FA Cup run I had seen ended at Gateshead the previous week. Hebburn itself is a town of little significance with about 15,000 inhabitants, although technically it is part of Jarrow. Hebburn metro station is well served and has Yellow Line trains running every ten minutes to South Shields, St James and Central Station. The ground is a ten minute walk from the metro station. I caught a 13:00 service from Darlington to Newcastle before directly catching a Metro to Hebburn. From here I walked through Hebburn 'High Street'. I must say I was surprised at how clean the town was despite featuring the typical fast food chains and discount stores. You then turn right into Victoria Road West where you can see the ground's fllodlights in the distance. You pass a tall block of flats which looks completely out of place in a town of small council estate houses. Upon reaching the ground you go right down North Drive until you reach a gap in the fence where you pay admission. Not even a pay box here however the gateman was very friendly and we discussed football in Richmond, North Yorkshire particularly the town's two clubs recent applications to the Wearside League.

There is not much to say about the ground. To your right as you enter is a step of terracing running for about 10 metres. After this is the main stand. This consists of two rows of wooden plank seating running for about 50 metres. Both ends are hardstanding while the far side is out of bounds. In the southwest corner of the ground is a clubhouse.

Hebburn Town were founded in 1912 and joined the Wearside League as Reyrolles in 1977. They played here until 1986 when they changed their name to Hebburn Reyrolle. They played two seasons in the Wearside League before changing their name to Hebburn. In 1989 they joined Northern League Division Two and were promoted to Division One in 1992. In 1995 the side were demoted to Division Two due to ground gradings. However in 2000 the side were promoted back to Division One and changed their name again, this time to the current Hebburn Town. The side were relegated back to Division Two after one season and have stayed there ever since. As I've already said this season saw the club's best ever FA Cup run as they reached the 4th Qualifying Round where they lost 3-0 at Gateshead.

Due to the cup run Hebburn had a number of games in hand and certainly had their eyes on the promotion places. It was they that started best, scoring an early goal through a good header. However just minutes later Northallerton equalised with a low free kick into the bottom right corner. The sides went in at half time with the scores level. Once again it was Hebburn who started the better side and a long shot found the net with half an hour to go and left Northallerton with lots of work to do. However deep into stoppage time a mix up in the Hebburn box allowed subsitute Stuart Dunn to lash the ball into the roof of the net to send the 6 visiting supporters beserk (including me)!

The programme is 20 pages long with 5 pages of ads and a glossy cover with a picture of the ground and match details. The content is very wordy and consists of match reports and news. However it is still a very good effort and unusually the inside pages are yellow.

Although not a favourite of mine, Hebburn certainly has charm and very friendly staff at the ground. I personally think it's a shame that a side that played in front of 1,200 the previous week only attracts 57 the next.

Hebburn Town matchday pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117159223503887715169/HebburnTown#