Pipe dream the undoing of Newcastle Blue Star

May 17 2009 Sunday Sun

NEVER mind Newcastle Blue Star, here is a club that sailed too close to the sun.

It is only to be hoped their lesson has been learned by those moons circulating about them.

Whatever the ins and outs, rights and wrongs and ups and downs of a sorry saga at Star – and it seems to me the FA are far from blameless here, having enticed the club to over-reach on false premises and promises – sustaining an ever-ascending side there always appeared a pipe dream.

Even after years of turmoil at Newcastle’s other outfit, Blue Star still, with all those goals, struggled to attract Disaffected of St James’s across the city to Kingston Park.

Plenty across the local non-league scene will cry “So what, it was ever thus” – as they stand with their dog at Shildon and Stokesley, Souths Shields and Bank.

However, it is still a crying shame.

Hope flickers still, of course.

But whatever becomes of the Blues, those clubs above and below them must pay heed. And must and, I’m sure, will stay in the black.

It would seem a Gateshead side fashioned in the silky image of their manager is, at last, winning over the admirers it deserves. Long may that upward arc continue.

Conversely, at Blyth Spartans might Mick Tait – armed surely, if conservatively, with just some of that FA Cup money – be the man to realise the ambitions of an already established fanbase?

And at Durham City, if president David W Asbery’s half-time hospitality is anything to go by, there stands a club impeccably run from top to bottom.

Then, of course, a little below Blue Star (but for how long?), we have Whitley Bay.

Fresh from their thrilling FA Vase success, talk at Hillheads has shifted to the UniBond. Rest assured, however, that any moves to progress will be cautiously considered, and rightly so.

The North East non-league scene has walked tall this season. If it has been reminded of anything by Blue Star’s current malaise, it is that it must also tread carefully.