Saturday 4th April 2026 ko 14:30

Northern League Division One

NEWCASTLE BLUE STAR 2 (Reid 41p 61)

CARLISLE CITY 1 (Bannon 7)

Att 592

Entry £8

Programme £2

The coach pulled up outside the KD Stadium and will all due respect to all the other clubs on the Northern Hop it all felt at a higher level, to the extent that GroundhopUK was simply adding 200 or so on the gate. Being a Saturday there were plenty of alternatives for the groundhoppers’ pound, and clearly a few took the opt out. For Chris Berezai and I, other than our reponsibility to the event, had a more oblique reason to find Newcastle Blue Star interesting.

It was because we’d been at Blue Star’s final game at Wheatsheaf Park in 2007. Now it’s worth mentioning that the Blue Star of 2026 is a 2018 revival of the club we’d seen back then. The phoenix club took on the lease at the Scotswood Sports Centre and fought their way through the Northern Alliance re-entering the Northern League in 2023 and being promoted to Division One a year later.

But that potted history doesn’t close to doing justice to what attending a game here was like. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say it was like going to a game in the top echelons of the Northern Premier League. The ground is remarkable, with a huge marquee, ( I did feel sorry for the kids darts practice being ruined) and the best reuse of shipping containers north of Gloucester City! Elsewhere stands are being erected at a remarkable rate- it was all too easy to forget the club are less than 10 years old!

It was no bad thing the Northern Leagure put Blue Star on the hop while they had the chance, I can’t imagine they’ll be playing at Step 5 for long. Even the attendance was remarkable, the only hop game that wasn’t a local derby, light on groundhoppers, yet nearly 600!

Chris Berezai and I managed to slightly excuse ourselves from the throng. We were allowed to watch the game from the balcony in front of an unused container/ hospitality box. The view of a good game was superb, and I hope it won’t be another 20-or-so years before we see Blue Star in action again.