Our last game of the season saw us with 13 men away to Stockton at Northfield School’s ground. This was the team we should have beaten by a country mile in the home game, but then allowed them to score two late goals to make the final score a respectable 4 – 3 in our favour. Given our performance against Billingham, three days earlier, we were confident and buoyant going into the game, and perhaps, that was our undoing.

On another very lively pitch, we huffed and puffed and over-elaborated, spurned some really good scoring opportunities, before Stockton, with their only attack of the first half lobbed a long ball towards our penalty area, which momentarily caught us napping and took a wholly undeserved 1 – 0 lead into half-time.

Tim and Rog berated the team, made one substitution at half time, which saw the introduction of Richie, who immediately made a huge impact on our general performance. Wave after wave of attacks were resolutely defended by Stockton before a pin ball machine goal, eventually coming off Kev restored parity. The game was there for the taking and we set about doing so with determination and resolution and then promptly gave Stockton a second goal, again like so many recent games, infuriatingly from a corner.

Yes, we should have had at least three penalties for handball in the box. Yes, we seemed to incur a free kick every time we tackled or competed for the ball, but our dominance and goal scoring chances were so many, it was incredible that we did not walk off winning by a hatful. We had two misses with the goal completely at our mercy; Stockton cleared off the line time after time and fair play to them, they deserved not to lose for their stoic defence, but we most certainly did not deserve to lose either.

So, sadly, to sum up, Stockton had two chances, both gifted to them, and scored; we had so many it was difficult to keep count, and scored once, and in so doing, surrendered our chance to come runners up in the league. What a shame! After a season which seemed to last forever, it is tough to take such a defeat from our last game. It distorts the overall view of the season as a whole and blights the assessment of what we have achieved, and let us not be mistaken or misled by this one result, we have done remarkably well, but also in saying that, how close we came to doing even better. We drew too many games we should have won, lost on merit to Billingham, lost away to Tyneside, when we deserved much more and then this defeat at the hands of Stockton. Put all that together, and given the number of times we turned up with just eleven men throughout the season, and how players, who were substitutes last year manfully stepped up to the plate and made such telling contributions, and all this in the premiership, we should take a great deal of heart and pride in our overall achievements this season.

So what of next year? As the season drew inexorably towards its conclusion, too many players were openly displaying dissatisfaction and there were rumours abounding each week about who would drop out, who would stay, which league we would be playing in etc, etc. I personally find it hard to credit, that a great group of lads should have become so divided. If I was to try and motivate you all to stay with the team, I would point to what you have achieved over the last two years and then point to that memorable and wonderful togetherness we all felt after the Billingham game. If that alone isn’t worth maintaining and building on, then I’m at a loss to explain why not. I sincerely hope and pray that we shall all be together next season, wherever we are playing, and that we can look forward with anticipation and optimism to developing even further, If any of you decide to go, all I can do is thank you personally for your friendship, your good nature, your wonderful sense of humour, your openness and your willingness to try new things. I wish you all the best and hope that our paths will cross at some stage in the future.

I leave you with my own version of an old adage:

“You never fully appreciate, or realise, what you have, until it’s gone!”

Think on it, lads and enjoy your summer break.