Club legend Dale leaves Blyth Spartans

And he certainly went out on a high, scoring one of the goals in a 3-2 win over Newcastle United U23s which helped Blyth lift the Northumberland Senior Cup at St James’ Park last week.

His final game in the green and white stripes was on Saturday when Spartans travelled to take on Gloucester City in the last league game of the season.

Dale leaves the club as Spartans’ all-time record appearance holder on 721, and second in the scoring charts to Brian Slane, with 220 goals for the club over a remarkable 18 seasons.

As well as lifting the Senior Cup, Dale helped fire Spartans to the FA Cup Third Round Proper in 2009 and again in 2015, where he scored a brace against Championship side Birmingham City.

Alongside a pair of Northern Premier League titles, and a further Northumberland Senior Cup success, Dale has won a whole host of individual honours during an unprecedented career at the club.

After retiring on the eve of the 2020/21 season, the forward made a sensational return at the beginning of this campaign and successfully helped the club avoid relegation, and racked up yet another milestone in the process – reaching a remarkable 700 appearances for the club in December.

Blyth manager Terry Mitchell said, “Robbie has been a fantastic servant to the club. It’s rare to see loyalty such as this in football, and to play more than 700 games and score so many goals is truly incredible.

Robbie has been an integral part of the squad since I’ve joined and he’s chipped in with some vital goals, and assists. He has been a huge part of us staying in the league this season.

"I want to thank him for everything he has done for myself and the club, and I can’t think of a more fitting way to sign off in front of the Blyth fans than winning a cup final at St James’ Park.”

Dale added: “Everyone knows how I feel about the club. I’m leaving but not retiring, and will probably carry on playing for a little while yet, but my heart will always be with Blyth.”