Easington Lane - Seaham Town Park

Easington Lane FC

Seaham Red Star FC

Seaham Town Park

B1285

Seaham 

County Durham 

SR7 0HP 

Wearside League Page

Facebook

Ground Number: 1483

Friday 19th September 2025

Easington Lane  0-5 Gateshead Leam Rangers

Shipowners Charity Cup Preliminary Round

EASINGTON LANE FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was initially established in 1995 as a junior side known as Hetton Juniors. They eventually progressed into adult football and were renamed to Easington Lane. They joined the Wearside League Division 2 in 2020 and spent three seasons there before winning promotion with a fifth-place finish in 2023. The following season, they won the Division 1 title to reach the Premier Division. A credible 6th place finish was achieved on their debut at step 7 last season.

Originally based in the Easington Lane district of Houghton-Le-Spring, they moved to Seaham Red Star to achieve ground grading obligations. Easington Lane is a village in the City of Sunderland metropolitan borough in the county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. Historically part of County Durham and located between Hetton-le-Hole, Seaham, Peterlee and Durham. It has a population of just over 7,000. The village contains a small shopping centre on the A182 road between Peterlee and Washington, and is also home to the parish church of the village, St Michael and All Angels.

MY VISIT

Originally, on this day, I was headed to Knaresborough for their Northern Counties East game on a rare Friday night. Advance train tickets were purchased, and hotels were booked. However, the game was pulled due to the FA Vase taking precedence, which was fair enough. Around £15 was lost on train tickets, but I was able to change the accommodation. It actually worked out favourably in terms of geography as we were in the North East on both Thursday and Saturday, and local transport was well priced. Initially, the replacement was Sunderland Women, with Colin off to either Horden CW or Easington CW. However, I spotted a cup game on the Wearside League website that was being played at Seaham Red Star. This was one that we both needed, and it also had a Wetherspoons we could do. There was a risk that it could be on the Northern Hop later this year, but it was a risk that I was prepared to take. On that, it was a shame that the hop games had not been released as no doubt some hoppers are avoiding the Northern League this season so they don't have an accidental revisit down the line.

From our game at Durham United, it was a peculiar walk home through some dark woods, with Google Maps being very vague and inaccurate on where the paths were. Eventually, we found our way back, albeit a few minutes later than intended. I bought a cider from Sainsburys to drink back at the room, but then Colin decided he fancied a drink in the pub and was buying. I had a pint of Strongbow whilst we watched some of the football highlights and chatted to some Newcastle fans. One of them had a 'Spurs Are Shit' Tattoo, which amused Colin as a fan of North London's second most successful football club. We were up in the room at 11, and it gave me the chance to have my Anglocetti cider and type both of my blogs from the previous day. After all of that, I had the best night's sleep of the trip, waking at 7.30 am. I started doing the preparation for today's blogs as well as having a shower and getting dressed. We waited in the room until 9.30 so that Colin could use his taxpayer-funded bus pass. For me, it was a very reasonable £7.50 for the TNE day saver, which gave me unlimited travel in the North East on buses. It was a shame that we were straying out of County Durham later for a bus change; otherwise, it would have only been £5.

We left at 9.30 and got the bus to Durham. We both needed a Wetherspoons that each of us hadn't done so first was the one in Durham that I'd done. A walk that should have taken 8 minutes took 20, with Colin doing the navigating. The Black Dragon was very tempting but I'd had far too much cider over the last week. Instead, a breakfast muffin with a Rosa Energy drink filled a gap. From there, it was a short walk to the bus stop for a bus to Bishop Auckland. Arriving around 10.45, we headed to the Bishops Football Museum. It was only meant to be a flying visit as I'd not picked anything up when I went to Bishop Auckland in August. However, genial host Barry was an excellent host. After Colin had knocked a display over within a minute of us arriving in the shop, he gave us a brilliant guided tour and history lesson, most of which I forgot or can't be bothered to post here. Nearly two hours later, we emerged and I had got an old shirt for £20. It was a bit tight, but what more incentive to do some much-needed weight loss, not that this week has helped. Colin got a coat that was big enough for PuffPuff, and we departed 90 minutes later in a good mood. There was time for a pint and a half of Black Dragon in the local Wetherspoons, which capped off a great morning.

 

From there, it was a bus ride to Chester Le Street, which at least gave me time to charge up and lay out this blog. There, we had a five-minute wait for the 50 to South Shields, which dropped us off near our hotel. There was a local shop whic I visited and got some Irn Bru as well as some snacks. We got to the hotel just before 3, and the receptionist got us checked in. The room was a mixed bag. There was traffic noise and too few sockets for power, but it did the job for the night. It was certainly better than sleeping in a car, as the Essex guys were doing in Northern Ireland. We left the hotel at 4 and made our way to the bus stop. I certainly got value out of my bus ticket today, the latest one took us to the Washington Galleries Bus Station. I'd have preferred to walk, but time constraints meant that I'd be using public transport. We got the Wild Boar Wetherspoons ticked, although a communication error made us miss the bus by a minute when Colin ordered food with a tight window for transport. In fact, he was in an especially annoying mood this afternoon, the things I have to put up with. It should have been a ten-minute wait instead at Hetton Le Hole interchange but the 17:41 never turned up, meaning 40 minutes sat in a bus stop doing nothing. With the buses totally untrustworthy, we headed straight to the ground. I didn't fancy pizza or chips, which is all the local takeaways offered. Instead, I got some feta and sun-dried tomato pasta, which was pleasant but cold. It was £3 entry and £3.80 for a pint of Woodpecker. This is a cider that's not es decent but it does seem native to the North East and it's always good to put something behind a club's bar. 

Easington Lane were in 8th place and had won four, drawn one and lost five of their games so far. They were on disappointing form, having lost three in a row. Their latest game was a 3-1 defeat to Hartlepool Pools. Gateshead Leam Rangers were top, having won eight, drawn one and lost one. They'd beaten Windscale 2-0 in their last game. Before that, they had beaten Easington Lane 4-1 in the Durham Challenge Cup. The game kicked off around five minutes late due to an issue with the netting at one end. Easington Lane dominated for 15 minutes but lacked finishing. Gateshead Leam Rangers scored on a swift break soon after through Brendan Lawther and doubled their lead on the half hour, Jordan Stephenson capitalising on some poor defending. Around two minutes into the second half, it was 3-0 thanks to a Lennox Magalhaes header. A bad elbow from a Gateshead player held the game up, though surprisingly, there was no sending off for the offender, only for the coach who went over to assist. It got worse for Easington Lane soon after, as it was 4-0 when a cross from the left was finished on the half volley from Magalhaes for his second. Then, the drizzle started, and the visitors made it 5-0 with a low shot by Lawther for his second. It was a sadly one-sided game in the end, a shame for the friendly people at the home club, but that's football, I guess. As it was rainy, late and a complicated trip home on public transport, we treated ourselves to a Taxi that worked out at £11 each. If you worked it out into time saved, it was less than the minimum wage, and so we thought it was worth it.  

THE GROUND

SEAHAM TOWN PARK is a pleasant and charming venue to watch a game. On the main side is an old-style stand which holds around 250, and next to it is an attractive building with a blue roof. On the far side is a standing area with a capacity of a couple of hundred. The rest of the ground is open. The clubhouse is excellent with a wide range of drinks and lots of old football-related stuff on the walls. There is also a catering hut, but I didn't check it out. The ground is linked by public transport, but it's quite patchy. There are various places nearby, including Tesco Express, a pizza place and a chippy.