Former Sunderland star wants to build on title win as historic season lies in wait

Atkinson guided the Newtonians to the Ebac Northern League title last season during his first full season in charge of the club and he is now hard at work preparing his squad to meet the challenges that lie in wait in the Northern Premier League East Division.

The promotion means Aycliffe will venture outside of a North East-based league for the first time in their 58-year history as they join former Northern League rivals Ashington, Consett, Dunston UTS, Hebburn Town and Stockton Town in an ultra-competitive and increasingly wealthy division.

There is a need to meet the Football Association’s ground grading regulations and find additional funds for increased travel costs with trips to clubs in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire now on the agenda, two factors that have led Aycliffe supporters to launch a GoFundMe fundraiser to aid the club. A surprise gesture from a now-former league rivals has helped - but Atkinson has now called upon the local community to get behind their club as they prepare for a historic campaign.

He told The Echo: “There won’t be a great influx of money coming in, we need to get the crowds up, we have to find the money for travel, to meet ground grading criteria, there are lots of things that come with promotion.

“But we are having a real go and it’s exciting. We just need the town to get behind us, to get a few more supporters in through the doors and to help us. There has been some interest from local businesses, you have sponsors do that year-on-year and we took the trophy around to them, which was nice to give them a little bit back and show what they had helped us do.

“The other thing, and nobody really knows this yet, but we had a little help from Penrith, but we played the last game of last season over there and they are getting work done to improve their ground, so they offered to give us their perimeter fencing, which has been a massive help for us. We are on the way to getting extra seating, so that’s a positive, there’s a turnstile ready, so we are on our way to meeting the ground grading and now it’s down to me to focus on getting the squad ready.”

Working hard in the competitive world of the summer non-league trading and getting his squad ready is right at the top of Atkinson’s list of priorities as he looks to build on the momentum gained.

Success has come at a price after clubs from higher levels were attracted to Aycliffe’s title win and put eyes on several of his players. Highly-rated defender Dan Myers was the latest to depart earlier this week as he stepped into the Northern Premier League’s top tier by joining a Marske United side managed by former Hartlepool United defender Graeme Lee. Retaining the majority of his title-winning squad and securing new additions will continue throughout the remainder of the summer for Atkinson, who is realistic in assessing the impact promotion has made on his squad and their list admirers.

“With success, and doing so well, people come looking at your players, which we expected and we may lose one or two to higher divisions but that is football,” explained Atkinson, who made 169 appearances for Sunderland during a seven-year stint in the Black Cats’ first-team.

“It happens every year, it happens at every level of football and you just have to get on with it. It’s about evolving, that is the plan for us, we have to evolve and evolve at a new level. That’s what we did last year, we brought in the right people to improve us and that’s what we are trying to do again.

“You can never be satisfied, you want better, you don’t rest on your laurels. You have to do everything you can to get what you want.”

Atkinson is ready to put his players through a supremely challenging pre-season schedule to ensure they are ready for day one of a challenging season.

Higher-level opposition such as National League North quartet Blyth Spartans, Darlington, South Shields and Spennymoor Town will all visit the Securicorp Stadium, as will former league opposition Crook Town and Boro Rangers, with the latter coming in the Northern League’s annual JR Cleator Cup.

As it stands, the final pre-season fixture will come on the final Saturday of July when Atkinson’s side entertain Northern Premier League Premier Division club Morpeth Town and the former Sunderland midfielder has revealed there are two main reasons why he has opted to subject his players to such a testing schedule.

He said: “We’ve got great games in pre-season, there won’t be many teams will have a more challenging pre-season than us and that’s been done with a purpose.

“It will hold us in good stead because in pre-season it can be tough with players on holiday and you can sometimes not get your team out. But this is now about building for the first day of the season and playing the teams we are playing will be good for finance and they will test us.”

Details of Newton Aycliffe’s GoFundMe appeal can be found here.