Jarrow's mini-dynamo powers on

Built next to the old Boldon colliery, Richie laid his pitch after getting rid of the Tarmac from an old car park. His good friend Brian Marshall, chairman of the local community association from which the club takes its name, helped him secure planning permission. Marshall, a softly spoken man in his 70s, put his heart and soul into football after being denied the chance to play as a child. Born with Perthes' disease, Marshall was forced to walk with a calliper and not allowed to take part in a tough, contact sport such as football. 'We're all loyal to Richie,' he says quietly. 'We'll be here as long as he is.'

A mini dynamo, Richie works at a rate of knots. The Bluetooth attachment clipped to his ear flashes away as he speaks, leaving you with the sneaking suspicion he may be participating in several conversations at once. Yesterday morning he was out cutting and rolling the pitch. By lunchtime he had changed into a shirt and tie to greet the Norton officials and by quarter to three he had slipped into the dugout sporting a Jarrow tracksuit.

Inside the ground a small crowd gathered to watch the tie that would earn the winners a welcome £1,000. The locals hissed and grunted at the standard of play. Over by an orange skip a collection of household chairs were occupied by kids swinging their legs in the late summer sunshine. In the quiet before a free-kick the sound of half a dozen players gobbing on the grass was heard by all.

Neither Jarrow or Norton have ever made it further than the first qualifying round, although Richie fondly remembers the day two years ago Jarrow reached the FA Vase semi-final. Although beaten by Didcot Town, the club earned £27,000 from that run, a sum that has lasted them to this day. 'I was on the telly after that,' says Richie, 'nervous as owt. Tyne-Tees gave out local awards, and there was Mick McCarthy, Shay Given, Stewart Downing, all the heroes from the north east. I was the only non-league man there.'

At half time Richie whizzed round to greet the regulars and check the cricket score from the game taking place over the fence before disappearing for the team talk. In the club bar Steve Cram was on the telly commentating from the athletics in Osaka, the 'arrow from Jarrow' unaware of the exploits of his home-town team.

Returning after a dismal first half, both teams were fired up. Graeme Baverstock, Norton's target man, twice went close as the visitors wasted chance after chance to take the lead. In the end it was Craig Nelson, a former professional with Middlesbrough, who broke the deadlock after escaping the Norton defence.

Stunned, the Norton contingent contemplated the result. Chairman Mick Mulligan has been working at the club for the past decade to improve the youth structure, increasing the number of teams from two to 18 and starting up girls and ladies football teams. His son Nathan was one of four players who came through that youth set up to play for Norton yesterday.

'It is frustrating for us though,' said Mulligan. 'We nurture them through and then so many of them get pinched at as young as eight years old by the academies [Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Darlington]. A lot of the kids return when they're dropped though and that's when we welcome them back with open arms.'

'That'll be extra training for them then,' grinned a Jarrow club official, nodding toward the visitors dressing room from which a round of expletives came firing out, before he skipped down the pitch to collect the spare balls.