After 2,896 games in the Northern League we are now planning to play at the highest level that the Football Club will ever have played at, Step 4 of the Football Pyramid in the Northern Premier League – East.

The record of them 2,896, the second highest number of games played behind Tow Law, games reads:
Won – 1234 
Drawn – 557
Lost – 1105
Goals For – 5739
Goals Against – 5157

Shildon AFC Chairman, David Dent said on the promotion “ I am delighted that we’ve achieved our ambitions to progress to Step 4. We’ve worked so hard to achieve it and to see it come off is fantastic, particularly now with the challenging year that we’ve been through. It’s massive not only for our Club but for the wider community. The Management Team have been fantastic and so have the players over the course of the last couple of seasons but so have a core set of people who have supported me and my wife in driving the Club forward. They should all be proud of themselves and so should the supporters and our town as a whole.”

A delighted Daniel Moore gave his thoughts to the website saying “I feel nothing but pride. Only the people really close to the club know how much time and effort has gone into achieving this.

Mark Hudson has been nothing short of incredible for me whilst I have continued to play and it means so much to us to take the club up together.

The players have given us everything for the last 2 seasons and I’m so pleased for them as a group as the dressing room we have is the best I have ever known at a football club and everyone of them deserve it.

Then there is David and Diane, Again only people close know what they have given and continue to give the football club and how they look after its staff and players. They have given the town a football club to proud of which I know means the world to them.

We’re really going to enjoy a few nights out to celebrate and enjoy the summer, but we have a vision for this football club and this is just the start of what’s going to be a very interesting journey. 

The newly formed league will have the following teams competing with travel distance in miles :

Cleethorpes Town –  135
Lincoln United – 127
Bridlington Town – 115
Sheffield FC – 109
Worksop Town – 104
Stocksbridge Park Steels – 99
Brighouse Town – 90
Liversedge – 86
Frickley – 83
Ossett United – 80
Pontefract Collieries – 74
Pickering Town – 73
Yorkshire Amateur – 67
Tadcaster Albion – 62
Marske United – 36
Dunston UTS – 31
Hebburn Town – 31
Stockton Town – 17

The 3 Amigos, Wilf Tray, Paul Mulley & Dave Longstaff are going to be raising money for Shildon AFC by walking Coast to Coast over 4 days from Gretna to Whitley Bay.

This will starting on 3rd June, any money you can donate will go to help the Football Club which has dramatically seen its income shrink due to the Pandemic.

Wilf says to add that they are all in their sixties and to take pity on them, well Dave isn’t, but I am sure he will pass for it 🙂 

Any support would be much appreciated to Donate Click Here (this will open a new window)

Shildon AFC will be joining clubs and organisations by taking part in the social media boycott from 15:00 Friday to 23:59 on Monday 3 May.

#WeStandTogether
#EnoughisEnough

English football announces social media boycott

The FA, Premier League, EFL, FA Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL, Kick It Out and the FSA will unite for a social media boycott from 15.00 on Friday 30 April to 23.59 on Monday 3 May, in response to the ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to football.

This has been scheduled to take place across a full fixture programme in the men’s and women’s professional game and will see clubs across the Premier League, EFL, WSL and Women’s Championship switch off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

As a collective, the game recognises the considerable reach and value of social media to our sport. The connectivity and access to supporters who are at the heart of football remains vital.

However, the boycott shows English football coming together to emphasise that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate, while highlighting the importance of educating people in the ongoing fight against discrimination.

In our letter of February 2021, English football outlined its requests of social media companies, urging filtering, blocking and swift takedowns of offensive posts, an improved verification process and re-registration prevention, plus active assistance for law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute originators of illegal content. While some progress has been made, we reiterate those requests today in an effort to stem the relentless flow of discriminatory messages and ensure that there are real-life consequences for purveyors of online abuse across all platforms.

Boycott action from football in isolation will, of course, not eradicate the scourge of online discriminatory abuse, but it will demonstrate that the game is willing to take voluntary and proactive steps in this continued fight.

Finally, while football takes a stand, we urge the UK Government to ensure its Online Safety Bill will bring in strong legislation to make social media companies more accountable for what happens on their platforms, as discussed at the DCMS Online Abuse roundtable earlier this week.

Edleen John, The FA’s Director of International Relations, Corporate Affairs and Co-Partner for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, said: “It’s simply unacceptable that people across English football and society more broadly continue to be subjected to discriminatory abuse online on a daily basis, with no real-world consequences for perpetrators. This needs to change quickly, and we continue to urge social media companies to act now to address this. We will not stop talking about this issue and will continue to work with government in ensuring that the Online Safety Bill gives sufficient regulatory and supervisory powers to Ofcom. Social media companies need to be held accountable if they continue to fall short of their moral and social responsibilities to address this endemic problem.

“We have recently seen how powerful it can be when everybody is united for the good of the English game. We are calling on organisations and individuals across the game to join us in a temporary boycott of these social media platforms, to show solidarity and unite in the message that English football will not tolerate discrimination in any form.”

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said: “Racist behaviour of any form is unacceptable and the appalling abuse we are seeing players receive on social media platforms cannot be allowed to continue.

“The Premier League and our clubs stand alongside football in staging this boycott to highlight the urgent need for social media companies to do more in eliminating racial hatred. We will not stop challenging social media companies and want to see significant improvements in their policies and processes to tackle online discriminatory abuse on their platforms.

“Football is a diverse sport, which brings together communities and cultures from all backgrounds and this diversity makes the competition stronger. No Room For Racism represents all the work we do to promote equality, diversity and inclusion and tackling discrimination.”

Trevor Birch, Chief Executive of the EFL said: “EFL clubs have expressed a clear desire to take a united stand against abhorrent racist, discriminatory, and threatening abuse on social media platforms which we fully support alongside the rest of the football family.

“While we recognise the value and role social media plays in our game, online abuse will not be tolerated and we will continue to strongly pursue all avenues open to us to affect change.

“The boycott is only part of the work being undertaken in this area but further highlights the need for social media companies to take additional responsibility for the inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour that appears on their platforms.

Simone Pound, Director of EDI at the PFA said: “Social media channels represent an extension of the working environment for professional footballers, and as the players’ union, we are committed to finding solutions that better protect our membership and the wider community from online abuse.

“As part of our work to address this issue, which started with the 24-hour #Enough boycott of social media channels, the PFA has been pushing for collaboration between the platforms, the game, the Government, police and CPS to find solutions and protect players from the abuse they face daily.

“In 2021, with a collective voice, we can hold social media companies to account and send a powerful message to a global audience – abusive behaviour is unacceptable.”

Sanjay Bhandari, Kick It Out Chair, said: “Social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse. This boycott signifies our collective anger at the damage this causes to the people who play, watch and work in the game. By removing ourselves from the platforms, we are making a symbolic gesture to those with power. We need you to act. We need you to create change.

“We need social media companies to make their platforms a hostile environment for trolls rather than for the football family. We need the Government to hold its nerve and keep its promises to regulate. The Online Safety Bill could be a game changer and we aim to help make that happen. There should be no space for hate and everyone can play their part. If you watch, work in or love the game, join in.”

Richard Bevan, Chief Executive at the LMA said: “The LMA fully supports the social media boycott across the professional game. A unified silence will send a loud and powerful message to those that perpetrate online abuse that their actions will no longer be tolerated, and to the social media companies that they have a responsibility to do everything in their power to eradicate online hate.

“We also urge Government to understand the significance of this collective action and to ensure that its Online Safety Bill delivers appropriately strong legislation.”

Kevin Miles, Chief Executive of the Football Supporters’ Association said: “The Football Supporters’ Association is fully behind the game’s efforts to stamp out online hate and discrimination and will join next weekend’s social media boycott. Much media attention has rightly focused on the vile abuse aimed at players, managers and journalists in the men’s and women’s game and we see that aimed at fans groups too. It has to stop.

“Many of our most active fan groups tell us that they have received disgusting abuse when they are doing nothing more than trying to represent their supporter base. It’s a threat to the very existence of supporter organisations who are run by volunteers in their spare time. As fans we stand with players, managers, referees and all in the game in calling for the social media companies to step up.”

Shildon AFC wins £25,000 product bursary in Buildbase Community Club Award

Shildon AFC is one of two non-league clubs to win a 50% share of the annual £50K Buildbase Community Club Award.

The club is receiving a £25,000 product bursary which covers building, electrical and hire materials to renovate its facilities, having pitched its plans to a panel of judges from Buildbase and the FA.

Pitch Team : Martyn Tweddle, Secretary – David Dent, Chairman – Michael Wilson, Videographer

And the clubs that have won the award this year were judged as much on their community involvement as their investment in football.

Shildon AFC has plans for new paving, decking and artificial grass in a community garden, café and outdoor seating area with wi-fi, which will support its homework club for two local schools. The outdoor space will also offer a place to walk for the over-60s, boules and space for kids’ holiday clubs and events.

During the pandemic, the club supported the community by delivering food parcels for local charities including the Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust and Shildon Alive, organising holiday courses and meals for disadvantaged children and arranging socially-distanced visits for supporters with mental health issues during lockdown.

David Dent, club chairman, said: “This win gives us a new dimension and more flexibility as to how we stage matches. We can house more people on match day and are creating an appropriate, outside space as a lot of our supporters are older people and will be anxious about being in closed spaces after the pandemic.

“For our local community it will be a massive benefit, helping with holiday courses, homework hubs and engaging supporters with coffee mornings. This helps many people in the community with the facility being seen as a real asset to the town.”

Local Buildbase branches will be supporting the clubs with information, advice and supplying the building products required for their projects.

Paul Roche, Managing Director of Buildbase said: “Non-league clubs have given incredible support to their communities during the pandemic and this is what our award is all about. And Shildon AFC is showing how clubs can help lead the way in local support as well as sporting activity.”

Buildbase has been giving away building materials to help renovate non-league football clubs since it became the title sponsor of the FA Trophy and Vase in 2016.

Updates can be found by following @BuildbaseUK on Twitter #BuildbaseCommunityClubAward at Buildbase.co.uk or in branch.