Although the month of December ended on a high for Newcastle Blue Star, the temperatures in January have been anything but and with two successive league fixtures being rescheduled because of the cold snap, Marc Nash’s men have been kicking their heels in 2025.
Thankfully a Tuesday night friendly against local opponents Ryton & Crawcrook Albion will allow Blue Star their first activity of the New Year and in doing so it will have them primed and ready for the visit of Kendal on Saturday.
The weather has certainly been a point of frustration for Blue Star but if there is a positive to be taken from the challenging conditions, it is that most of the other teams within the Northern League Division One table have also been beaten by the cold snap.
A situation that means the table is largely unchanged since we said goodbye to 2024 and this also means that Blue Star resume competitive activity while also being a competitive part of this season’s promotion race.
While it is a race that has teams looking not only over their shoulder but also into the distance and with their being such little distance between the teams that currently sit within the top five, every single point is going to matter from here on in.
Points will matter in 2025 just as they mattered in 2024 and although it feels like such a long time ago, Dan Lanning’s double against North Shields is a brace that still lives long in the memory – especially after it secured such an important win on enemy territory.
Now though, the ground is a lot more welcoming as the KD Stadium opens its doors to Kendal and although the two teams were meant to meet in December at Parkside Road, once again it was the weather who scored the winning goal.
That clash is rescheduled for March and who knows what the table will look like by the time the reverse fixture is played in a couple of months and if anyone is thinking that far ahead, they need to remember there is plenty of football to be played between now and then.
Which also allows Kendal the opportunity to gatecrash the promotion party that only has a selected guestlist and although they find themselves outside the top five at the time of writing, Saturday’s visitors are only two points behind Saturday’s hosts before their weekend meeting in NE15.
Something which sets up this upcoming clash rather nicely. A warm welcome goes out to the visiting Kendal team and support and for those who lend their voice to the home team, make sure to bring the noise throughout.
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