Spennymoor Town
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Spennymoor Town
FOOTBALL CLUB
A lot of hard work has gone into Spennymoor Town FC to build a strong
foundation for the club and that approach has paid dividends. Sport NE
Magazine recently caught up with their Managing Director Tony Wilson
to find out more about how they’ve been getting along.
Tony told us, “I supported the club
as a young lad and have been involved
as a director for around six years. I
then became MD. Seeing more than 300
young people being proud to wear the
Spennymoor Town badge is the most
rewarding thing for me. Our academy
has grown exponentially in size and
probably the main challenge because of
this is ensuring such a large organisation
with a footprint of well over 1000 people
are all speaking with one voice and are
aligned.”
“We’re experiencing a lot of
frustrations around our issues with
the pitch, but they aren’t holding us
back and there’s a real positive, upbeat
atmosphere around the club. We’re
going places on and off the pitch.
“The season has gone really well
both on and off the pitch. We’ve made
strides forward commercially and with
the new management structure. All the
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while, we’ve been building a significant
promotion push with the first team. The
National League has become a very
real possibility, so we’re planning for
any eventuality. That includes working
with a number of organisations to
improve the pitch and the ground to the
level we’re aspiring to. There are some
exciting things in the pipeline.
“One of the most exciting things
for our youth development is creating
an education programme with some
of the region’s finest educational
establishments, which will allow us to
offer an apprenticeship to young people
and give them the life skills they need
to have a career, whilst also giving them
a shot at a career in football. We want
to offer something attractive enough
to attract the best young talent in the
region.
“Our Under 18 squad has players
representing the first team in the
Durham Challenge Cup as a clear
progression path every season. It’s
obviously exciting for the young lads
seeing this pathway and a handful
have earned contracts with the club as
a result. We want this number to grow.
We’d like to develop this transitional
period further with an under 23 team.
“A look at our match day
experiences will show you all you need
to know about the club’s position in
the community. We regularly welcome
other sporting clubs, the town band,
our youth teams, parents, businesses,
charities and community groups to the
games. The Brewery Field is a place
that the community can come together.
We get four per cent of the town’s
population through the gate.
“Our main ambitions now are to
push ourselves to the absolute maximum
our budget will allow and to become as
professional as possible.”