Sandringham Drive
Blyth
Northumberland
NE24 3PS
Ground Number: 1485
Saturday 20th September 2025
Blyth Town 0-1 Emley
NPL D1 East
BLYTH TOWN FC - A BRIEF HISTORY
The original Blyth Town was established in 1995 as a junior club, initially having three boys teams. They gradually expanded to more age groups, and added both men's and women's adult teams in 2002, with the men's team entering the Northern Alliance Division 2. They won the title at the first attempt and then earned promotion to the Premier Division in 2005 as runners-up to Alnmouth. Blyth Town were runners-up to Heaton Stannington in 2013, then won the title three times in succession. It was only after the latter of these titles that they had the ground in place to take promotion to Division 2 where they achieved an 8th place finish. The club changed its name to Blyth AFC in 2017 following a breakaway from the youth side of the club. They lasted just a season, winning Division 2 in 2018 before folding that summer.
Blyth Town have not pulled up any trees in the FA Cup, never progressing past the Preliminary Round. In the FA Vase, they reached the 4th Round in 2023/24, beating Chester Le Street Town, Tadcaster Albion, Crook Town, AFC Liverpool and Bishop Auckland before losing to Whickham on penalties.Local cup wins include the Northern Alliance Challenge Cup in 2015 & 2016 and the Northern Alliance George Dobbins League Cup in 2015. They achieved their record attendance of 1,105 against local rivals Blyth Spartans in the Northumberland Senior Cup semi-final in 2017.
MY VISIT
My preference for an afternoon game on this trip was always going to be Morpeth Town, but it didn't work out, either for them, nor for groundsharers West Allotment Celtic. There was a 13:30 kickoff involving their reserve side, but that would mean sacrificing my morning game. Morepeth Town were especially evasive and expensive to travel to, along with Bamber Bridge, as the two step 3 sides that I need to complete down to that level. Instead, step 4 would be providing my football, namely Blyth Town as I wanted to save the Northern League teams for the upcoming Easter Hop. It was a shame that the awkward location meant I wouldn't be able to visit the local Wetherspoons, which I would have to wait for on a later date.
Having had a much disrupted trip with fixture changes, I was beginning to think that driving might have been a better option. It had probably worked out at about the same price cost-wise but it would have been more convenient but I was glad to not have to put miles on my car. As a non-driver, Colin is no use although at least he didn't actively avoid using his own car so that others have to put the miles on their car unlike some hoppers. From my game at Harton and Westoe, it was a rainy 20-minute walk to Tyne Dock station. From there, we had a six minute wait for our metro into the city centre. Colin dropped his two bags at the place we had used yesterday, costing him the best part of a tenner. For me, I hit upon the idea of using Evri to post my bag home. For £6.50, I was able to not have to worry about storing or carrying it for the rest of the weekend. Using a plastic bag I had taken from the hotel earlier, I got some sticky tape and wrapped it up, printed a label and sent it off. The whole process was a piece of cake, and I headed back to the station to get my train.
I was peckish by now, and a Parmo at a local chippy was hugely tempting. However, the timescale was a bit tight and so I headed to the station. I went to the craft beer place called Wobbly Aleways and picked up a couple of ciders. The Lanthorn Craft cider was first up, a limited edition with only 2,200 bottles produced. From Newport on Taye in Fife, it was an excellent, flavourful cider, worth the £6.35 asking price. The Ross On Wye Northwood was excellent at the football too. Happily, my train tickets were only just over £4 and the service was comfortable, albeit a few minutes late. I was able to top up my phone using the USB charging on the train. I was at Newsham at 2.15, walking to the ground in the drizzle. It was £10 in and £16.50 on some stunning food, namely chilli-loaded hotdog and salt and chilli pepper-loaded chips, which were eaten under shelter. I made my way to the limited cover at the side of the pitch, thankfully, it did an OK job as the weather upped its anti-Northern bias with the rain getting heavier. The main thing was that the game was on.
Blyth Town were in 13th place with eight points from eight games. They'd won their last two, having beaten Bishop Auckland 3-2 in their last game. Emley were in 5th, having gained twelve points from six games. They'd beaten Lincoln United in their last game. The first half was a dreadful contest in heavy rain and howling wind. Emley were probably the better side, but the total lack of respect from the weather made play difficult. Things improved in the second half as the weather eased off, and both sides had decent efforts early in the second half. Emley were by far the better side though, they headed against the angle of post and bar just after the hour and then hit the bar less than a minute after that. It looked as if it might be goalless, but Emley crashed in a late winner through Hayden Lindley, who smashed the ball into the top corner from the edge of the area. Blyth then had a late rally, which makes you wonder why they didn't bother in for the vast majority of the game, instead adopting a more defensive approach.
I needed to beat a hasty retreat as the rain was only half-hourly. As it happened, I was there for the 17.11 five minutes early and in a fairly decent mood. Wycombe Wanderers had sacked manager Mike Dodds during the week and made a good appointment in Michael Duff. As well as being able to reuse the tracksuits from the last manager, it did the team the world of good as they beat Northampton Town 2-0. Sadly, my local side Holmer Green were thumped 6-1 at Easington Sports in the FA Vase. I also noticed that my original proposed game at Seaton Sluice in the morning had been postponed due to the weather, which had ramped up the rain and wind again. The train provided respite from this as I headed back to Newcastle. It did my phone the world of good power-wise as I was almost fully charged by the time we were back. There was only a choice of one exit at Newcastle Station, and the rain was coming down in buckets. Usually, I'd walk, but I got the Metro to Haymarket to keep as dry as possible. In the Mean Eyed Cat, it was two retries: Kasteel Rouge and Ross On Wye Bittersweet Goodbye. Colin turned up denched as a rat, and as he was not a drinker like me, I supped up and we headed to our room.
THE GROUND
GATEWAY PARK is a rather uninspiring venue and very basic. There are the standard metal stands, one seated, one standing, holding a few hundred between them. They are unattractive but did the job on a wet day. The rest of the ground was open to the elements. The bar was very smart with pool tables and sports TV. The food van was superb, having a good range of tasty and imaginative food at fair prices. I didn't see any merchandise for sale. The train station was ten minutes walk away and there was plenty of parking. I didn't see anything at all in the immediate vicinity of the ground.
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