Before today they'd lost every one of their 28 games, conceding 137 goals in the process and amassing a negative goal difference of 121. Today they beat FC United of Manchester 2-1 away, perhaps the most stunning result of the season in England!
Burton v Cheltenham from today* is a pretty stunning result too, but yep, beating FCUM away is pretty remarkable given Durham's circumstances. That puts them on par with Bracknell Town (lost 29 of 30) in the crap season stakes. *[result]Burton 4-2 up with 7 minutes left, and 5-3 up with 3 minutes left, managed to lose 5-6[/result]
Unfortunately for Durham they had six points deducted, so will still need another win before the seasons end just to finish on 0 points.
What is happening with Durham? I read somewhere that all their senior players left before the season, and that their entire squad now consists of 16-17 year olds, but is there any more to it than that? I've always been surprised that Durham never had a better team. Football-crazy northeast location, built-in rivalries with Hartlepool, Darlington, Middlesbrough, York... decent-sized city etc.
They had a good team, but all their sponsors pulled out, I think after they were turned down for promotion. I think it came pretty late so they didn't have time to build a new team. And when a team's doing really badly, it's very very hard to attract players to a club, as nobody wants to play for a side getting humiliated every week.
Levels 5-8 are tough going for clubs in the Far North. There just aren't that many at those levels (Gateshead, Blyth Spartans...and that's pretty much it). It goes back to the formation of the Conference. At the time, four leagues were approached to be feeder leagues: The Northern Premier League, the Northern League, the Southern League, and the Isthmian League. Only the NPL and the SL accepted. Later, Isthmian League clubs got itchy and eventually the league gave in and became an official feeder. The Northern League never did. As a result, the geographic distribution of clubs has been skewed over the years as leagues have expanded and contorted. Non-league history is very complicated and the system has always been very byzantine because leagues can be very territorial since they are not controlled by the FA (unlike lower divisions in many countries). Over time, the Northern League slipped down to become a feeder to the NPL -- an 8th level league and after the expansion of the Conference, a 9th level league. All the while, the NPL was sucking up small clubs from the Midlands, Yorkshire, and Lancashire from other feeders. In the process, it's become a league that is almost entirely bereft of North East teams despite being the nearest level 7-8 league to the region. Now, the situation is that the North East is left with a few hardy souls with lots of traveling from levels 5-8. The rest are stuck in the Northern League at level 9, underdeveloped and undersupported. It's tough being that small and living in the shadow of Newcastle and Sunderland, I guess. Anyway, every so often Northern League clubs give it a go in the mid-tier levels of the pyramid (5-8). This usually ends in financial disaster -- increased travel and player costs, with lower interest and gate money due to a complete loss of local rivalries. Durham City and Newcastle Blue Star were this year's victims, although Spennymoor Town, Bishop Auckland, and Whitley Bay have all experienced essentially the same problems in the recent past. Now, Durham might be big enough to bypass this negative cycle....but clearly they don't have the backing at this time and it might not be a realistic goal in the end.
