By Andrew McDonnell (@AndrewSJourno)
Morpeth Town’s fixtures for the new Northern League Division One season have been announced, with their first game of the season being away to Jarrow Roofing.
The FA Cup, which has yet to be drawn, opens the season on Saturday 6 August, while the Roofing game will be on Tuesday 9 August.
A trip to Sam Smith’s Park to face Newcastle Benfield for the first Saturday league game of the season will take place four days later before a difficult home double header.
The Highwaymen welcome Consett to Craik Park for the first home game of the season on Wednesday 17 August, while they welcome the reigning league champions Shildon the following Saturday.
Morpeth play their first derby of the season, the A197 derby, against Ashington on Bank Holiday Monday, 29 August, at Woodhorn Lane.
For the first time in many-a-season, the Highwaymen will play the reverse fixture of that derby on Boxing Day.
Guisborough Town, who finished level on points with the Highwaymen last season, are the visitors on 3 September, with the reverse fixture being the first game of 2017 on 7 January.
The first sight of the Northern League Division One newbies comes on 7 September, with Chester-Le-Street, who finished third in Division Two last season, coming to town.
The Cestrians, who host Morpeth on 17 December, aren’t the only newly promoted side to come up against the Highwaymen, as after a long trip to Cumbria to face Penrith on Wednesday 14 September, Sunderland Ryhope CW come to Craik Park. Morpeth travel to Ryhope on 18 February for the reverse fixture.
South Shields, who have the intentions of getting promoted to the Evo Stick league next season, are the Highwaymen’s opponents at home on 15 October.
After the success at Wembley Stadium on 22 May, Morpeth will certainly be looking to build on that and go for the league title, which they missed out on by 19 points due to a severe backlog of games in the final three months of last season.
The away trip to Marske United, who finished runners-up last season, marks the halfway point in the league campaign on 19 November, a game which will be contested greatly.
Morpeth travel to Shildon on 4 February, which will not be one to miss to say the least, as by this stage in the season, the contenders for the title will have emerged.
The final six games doesn’t get much easier with the Highwaymen going up against five sides that finished in the top half of the table last season, and the Division Two champions.
The run-in starts with a trip to Mariners Park to face South Shields on 18 March before Morpeth play host to Dunston a week later.
Newton Aycliffe and Washington complete the away fixtures of the new season, with a home game against Seaham Red Star in between.
The final day of the season on Saturday 22 April is against Marske United, but hopefully the league will have been settled by this point.
It promises to be a great season ahead for the reigning FA Vase champions, and it certainly will be action-packed from start to finish.
