Hebburn Is A Place On Earth

10th October 2026
Oxford City FC were making one of their longest journeys of the season in the Conference North, taking on league newcomers Hebburn Town on the southern side of the River Tyne.
It seemed a worthwhile challenge to make it to this one.

Actually it falls short of the longest of City's 26/27 trips - South Shields' Mariners Park ground is all of 1.1 miles further away.

My day started in Newcastle city centre which was enjoying glorious blue skies but wicked cold gusty winds.
The stencils celebrated local heroes...

Whilst visiting Brighton fans had been making their presence felt with a bit of stickering...

After a spot of breakfast in the Five Swans Wetherspoon's by the University, a visit to the Laing art gallery, and taking the opportunity to marvel the grand city centre buildings in the sunshine, I made my way to the Newcastle Tap for a pre-noon beverage.

Newcastle Tap (Baron House, 4 Neville Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5EN)
This addition to the Pivovar Tap empire was opened in 2017.  It's on the ground floor of former office block, Baron House, so unlikely to trouble the Taps at Sheffield or York for architectural wow factor.

Head back to 1974, when the office block was newly constructed, and you'd find the 8,000sq ft Geordie Pride pub in the basement, which featured a mock Victorian Street and recreation of the buffet from the former Douglas Hotel which stood on the site pre-1971.
Dare I say it sounds way more exciting than the Tap, a neat  industrial single room bar with a mezzanine level.

Not many customers at 11:30 on a Saturday.  
Lots of beers to pick from.
I went for the Wilde Child 'Shamrocks and Shenanigans', a good interpretation of a dry Irish stout, in great condition for what will have been the first poured of the day.

Right, midday, time to make the trip across to the south side of the river.

My expert research had confirmed that Hebburn and Radcliffe are battling it out for worst pub town in the National League North.

It's a bit of Tyneside with almost as many clubs as pubs.
Filtering the CAMRA pub map for those selling cask ale revealed few options. 

You could, of course, just stick in the city centre and travel on the Metro in time for kick-off, but I was determined to go on a mission to find somewhere that would serve me a decent beer before the match.
Firstly, 1.1 miles from the ground in Bill Quay.

The Wardley (Brack Terrace, Bill Quay, NE10 0TT)
The current building dates to 1897 when the local area was blooming with riverside industry and new terraced houses were being built to accommodate the influx of workers.  Many of those terraces have since being demolished leaving the Wardley standing alone.
Step inside (with just a little bit of trepidation - we're way off the tourist trail here) and you'll find a L-shaped room with a snug area to the back.  Cushioned bench seating to one side by the fireplace, high stools lined up to face the bar.  An odd feature was a floor to ceiling mirror at the end (who's that scruffy bloke taking pictures?)

The sole cask on offer was Ossett 'White Rat', a second hand pump with a turned around clip.  The White Rat, at £3.90 a pint, was served with a bit of patience, taking a while to settle, but once it was handed over to me I found it on pretty good form - an enjoyable beer.

The rest of the custom consisted four solo blokes, all obvious locals, and three dogs.  The build-up to the early Prem kick-off was showing on the TV screens, Tommy Hunt 'Lovin' on the Losing Side' (1976) playing in the background.  Uh-oh, is that an omen?

After the Wardley, I made my way up beyond the football ground and into the centre of Hebburn itself.

As I wasn't intrepid enough to venture into the club which supposedly sells cask, my only other option was a ten-minute trek along Jarrow Road to reach the Longship.

The Longship (Ushaw Road, Hebburn, NE31 2YA)
This is a community pub dating back to the eighties, but looking thoroughly modern within due to a 2025 refurb.  It's a Greene King house - the sole cask beer 'Abbott', which seems to be the norm these days since IPA has been put on the back burner.
The Longship was doing a roaring Saturday lunchtime trade.  Lots of Sunderland shirts by the bar, soon to depart to make the journey to the Stadium of Light.  Lots of food trade, with plates of pub grub coming out to tables full of folk of all ages.
Not a pub I'd get excited about, but good to see it doing well.  Abbott in 'Acceptable' condition.

A twenty minute walk took me back to the entrance to the Trustmark Group Stadium.

Hebburn Town FC achieved promotion as Northern Premier Division champions in 25/26, marking an ascension to the highest level they've played at to date.
They were founded as a works team for local engineering giants Reyrolles in 1912.  The factory, which stood between the ground and the river, is long gone, modern housing taking its place.  But the football team continued, recently going from strength-to-strength, the ground being further developed each time they moved up a league.

The two storey Sports Club in the corner has a pleasant bar on the ground floor and a function area with balcony overlooking the pitch on the first floor.  Closed for a private event on this occasion, which is a pity as I was looking forward to grabbing a spot on that balcony. 
The big brand keg beers were good value, Arsenal v Leeds was on TV screens, friendly folk shared my table and weren't shy to get chatting to the odd-bod from Oxford.

At the time, this was 3rd vs 5th in the National League North, Hebburn snubbing several predictions that they'd struggle at this level with strong performances in the first couple of months of the season.
In fact, they hadn't been beaten in a league match at the Trustmark Group stadium for a year. 

So it was an impressive start for the visitors when Tyrone Marsh scored for City after just 3-minutes.
I thought the two teams were pretty evenly matched for the remainder of the first half. Hebburn would have equalised if only you were allowed to take a throw-in from somewhere completely different to where the ball went out.

After surviving an early scare in the second half, City took control of the game.  Ludwig Francillette, once on Newcastle's books, took advantage of his considerable height and a perfectly placed corner to head into the top corner of the net.  Then Ellis Brown niftily drove the ball past the keeper to make it three after 64 minutes.

A great result, with only Macclesfield and Hereford above us in the league table.
Here's the hardy bunch of City supporters at the end of match, picture courtesy of the club's Facebook page.

I can't make it to the next couple of away fixtures, so the next footy ground pics and exploration of a new town will hopefully be from Hednesford in mid-November.
Keep the momentum going and we'll still be troubling the top of the league at that point.

And yes - very pleasingly - Hebburn did play the Belinda Carlisle track just before kick-off!