Popping into the Marine dressing room pre kick-off to give them a rallying cry?

I find it embarrassing and disappointing that every North East club is out of the FA Cup (again) before we've even reached the 4th round. The former 'hotbed of football' hasn't been a hotbed for a very long time now....maybe the 1950's?, if ever.

How embarrassing for Leeds yesterday when Crawley brought on Mark Wright towards the end of the game.


you older one's will remember him from his time on The Only Way is Essex.

there was a book written in the late 50,s called The Hotbed of Football about north east football up to that date. its a good read if you can get hold of it. since that date its been a gradual fall from grace in the area itself with very few highlights but plenty of the opposite.

Still available on the internet, it was by Arthur Appleton. The NE was a hotbed in the 50s, both in the success of our teams, Blackhall, Horden, Easington all appeared in the 1st or 2nd round of the FA Cup, Amateur Cup winners, Newcastle in the FA Cup, Sunderland Bank of England club, even a golden period for Pools. Also the region supplied something like 10% of all professional footballers, which is staggering. The demise of the region industrially coincided with the demise of its teams, three of whom are now no longer in the Football League. Scotland had a similar story to ourselves with their footballing demise starting in the late 70s/early 80s lack of decent jobs, low pay and drugs, etc, I feel the NE 40 years later is now showing signs of going down the same road, as we now produce no more or less footballers than any other region.

[quote="horden"]

Still available on the internet, it was by Arthur Appleton. The NE was a hotbed in the 50s,
i would advise anyone who were not around in that period to get hold of a copy if you support anyone in the area. i,ll guarentee you,d enjoy it.

Still available on the internet, it was by Arthur Appleton. The NE was a hotbed in the 50s, both in the success of our teams, Blackhall, Horden, Easington all appeared in the 1st or 2nd round of the FA Cup, Amateur Cup winners, Newcastle in the FA Cup, Sunderland Bank of England club, even a golden period for Pools. .[/quote]




Hey,you missed out Darlo smashing Chelsea 4-1 in the FA Cup back in 1958

Hey,you missed out Darlo smashing Chelsea 4-1 in the FA Cup back in 1958[/quote]

Deliberately And we smashed Man U 3-4

Don't forget the mighty West Auckland

http://www.westauckland.plus.com/westau ... ldcup.html