Blyth Town manager Gavin Fell hailed as historic Northern Premier League season lies ahead

Blyth Town chairman Scott Douglas believes the influence of manager Gavin Fell has put the Northern Premier League newcomers on an upward trajectory.

The former FA Vase winner stepped up to take charge at Gateway Park just before the midway point of last season after former manager Michael Connor accepted an offer to take charge of Blyth Spartans. Fell, who had worked as assistant manager under Connor, oversaw a remarkable second half of the season as Town qualified for the Northern League Division One play-offs before producing two remarkable wins to seal a historic promotion.

A 2-1 semi-final win at much-fancied Shildon took Fell’s men within 90 minutes of a first ever promotion into the Northern Premier League East Division - but any thoughts of moving into step four appeared to have been dashed when former Newcastle United striker Michael Ndiweni put Newcastle Blue Star a goal ahead against Town in the play-off final.

However, a late penalty from Dan Wilson took the game into a shoot-out and it was the former North Shields striker that struck the decisive blow to ensure Douglas, Fell and all connected with Town can look forward to facing the likes of Ashington, Dunston UTS and Spartans in this season’s NPL East.

Reflecting on the impact Fell has made, Douglas told The Gazette: “Gavin’s pedigree before he even went into coaching is unbelievable. He went to Wimbledon as a pro, he won the Vase with Whitley Bay and Spennymoor as a coach and he always sets the standards. Mick (Connor) was the focal point of the club, he’s a Blyth Town legend and we totally understood the reasons why he chose to leave the club because we are from Blyth and I don’t think there’s one person at Blyth Town that hasn’t supported Blyth Spartans at one point.

“There was never going to be anybody else coming in when Mick left, it was always going to be Gav to step up and I had no doubts about him. We had some funny results but they weren’t indicative of how we were playing. He steadied the ship, he’s a credit to the club and he has brought in a one club ethos and that’s why the gates are going up because we get a lot of juniors coming in now. The club is on an upward trajectory and a lot of that is down to Gav’s influence.”

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