South Shields off to Wembley so its Zach & Gibbo vs Fallon & Mr Langley
As you know, the Counties Podcast has been following the FA Vase since the first preliminary rounds, not just the sides from the Hallmark Security League though, no, this season we had a twist! Martin Fallon’s random team generator allocated each of your favorite podcasters a team to follow from the word go. Sides such as St Margaretsbury (Mr Langley), Stourport Swifts (Fallon), Highmoor Ibis (Zach) and Eccleshill United (Gibbo) were suddenly gaining an extra supporter as we week by week followed the progress of our allocated sides and their conquerors.
To be fair, the Hallmark Security League sides did ok this season, Atherton Collieries reaching the furthest of our own clubs as they succumbed to Cleethorpes in the last 16 roared on by nearly a couple of hundred Colls fans dressed as all sorted of weird and wonderful black and white objects. Our personal favorite cozzy was Gibbo’s Merseille Marceau though!
This weekend we sent Mr Langley all the way over to Tyne and Wear to follow South Shields vs Coleshill Town to cover the semi-final second leg game and despite tickets being rare as rocking horse faeces, Mr Langley’s face opens 1000 doors.
South Shields held a slender advantage in this game having come away from Coleshill with a 2-1 lead and with a 3400+ sell out crowd expected at the Mariners Stadium it was always likely to favour the home side and their talismanic icon – Julio Arca.
Early signs were good as Mr Langley secured a hi-five from the former Premier League player and also netted a very rare coffee. The game got under way with the crowd in fine voice with a number of supporters having made the trip up from the West Midlands too.
The terraces were 4-5 deep as the weather just about held and despite stiff defending from Coleshill it was good news for Gibbo and Zach’s adopted side as the good luck Hi-5 from Mr Langley worked it’s magic, on the stroke of half time the ball was cut back from the by-line to Julio Arca who fired the ball into the bottom left hand corner to effectively kill the tie by half time.
Following the drama of the Burgers running out Mr Langley returned to his vantage point, a fuse box at the base of floodlight number 6 to witness an effective South Shields round-up job as they made it 2-0 on the day and 4-1 on aggregate on the hour when a cheeky chip over the keeper proved to be the only chip available in the half as the burger van had ran out of them too!
As Coleshill threw everyone forward towards the end, Shields sucker-punched with two late goals both after the 90th minute to capitalise on the lack of defence to make it 4-0 on the day, 6-1 on Aggregate. As the full time whistle went there was a massive roar that was likely heard in Sunderland as the Mariners head to Wembley and Graham Fenton takes the side from South Shields to Wembley on Non-League finals day to see if he can do what he did with North Shields a couple of seasons back. We won’t shout that too loud as they beat Glossop North End on that day.
However, just like the last couple of finals, we will be at Wembley to cover the Vase final and give you the best coverage in the North West on the day as the Counties Podcast train heads south with Mr L waving at the rest of the CP team from first class. It also pits Gibbo & Zach against Messrs Fallon and Langley in the podcast sweep!
Onwards to Wembley and Non-League Finals Day!
Why not join us in the crowd at the National Stadium on 21st May, tickets for the day are available from the FA Website at http://www.thefa.com/tickets