Two Years on, How Has Marine AFC Developed Since Their Special FA Cup Game Vs Tottenham?

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Northern Premier League side Marine, when they faced Tottenham Hotspur on a cold January evening on Merseyside.

The third round tie generated more than £300,000 for the non-league club through virtual sales tickets, after the match was moved to play behind closed doors due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The club sold £10 virtual tickets to the match as fans could not attend and more than 30,000 people purchased a ticket, ending the clubs fears on missing out on over £100,000 in commercial revenue if the game was played under normal circumstances.

Jose Mourinho was among the 30,000 people who purchased a ticket, Spurs’ Portuguese boss showing the utmost respect to the Northern Premier League Division One North West hosts by fielding a side boasting an aggregate 402 international caps.

Despite losing 5-0 to the Premier League giants, it felt like a victory to the home team as it became one of their most memorable nights in the club’s history. Carlos Vinicius scored a 13-minute hat-trick, whilst the other two goals came from Lucas Moura and 16-year-old Josh Devine.

Although, every Marine supporter can remember when their dream nearly came true in the first 15 minutes of the game when Neil Kengni’s 25-yard attempt beat keeper Joe Hart before hitting the bar when the match was goalless.

Spurs and Mourinho were very appreciative of them after the game and left them a bag full of shirts and promised to send them their match shirts once they had been washed.

They have grown massively over the last two years, with improvements made to their stadium, merchandise and fan experience following a refurbishment. The Merseyside-based club currently stand seventh in the Northern Premier League after 32 games played and have their eyes set on a top-five finish come the end of the season.

The Merseyside club has said: “Marine in the community has thrived, by helping a great many local people feel a part of something special whilst bringing together people from all walks of life, from different ages, genders, and backgrounds to create a social hub of involvement and participation.”

The club have also recently advanced into the semi-finals of the Liverpool Senior Cup after beating Everton’s U18’s 4-1, proving that they are in good form and have a great chance of succeeding in the next round.

There has been no better time than right now to be a Marine fan, as thousands continue to show their support on social media. One fan wrote: “The support has been amazing, the crowd that turns up home and away every week is just incredible. Let’s keep going!”

With constant youth talent coming through their side, there is no telling where manager Neil Young could take his team in the future.

Their leading goal scorer in all competitions is Sol Solomon with six goals in 13 appearances, with James Barrigan and Andy Scarisbrick behind him with two goals each this season.

Marine have come so far since that historic night against Spurs, so what is next for them?

As they press on to finish in the top five of their league this season, they also have a semi-final round coming up. If they can progress to the final of the Liverpool Senior Cup it would be a huge step for them, and possibly have the chance of grabbing the silverware. Young insists that his side must take each game by game and focus on maximising results, as they are only three points off Bamber Bridge in fifth position, so every point in crucial.

With the clubs future ahead of them, Marine can only go above and beyond from here and with the relentless support from the fans, they can achieve great things.

by Sadie Meakin

Three fans walk 20 miles from Marine for local food banks

Amidst the struggle of the cost-of-living crisis, Steve Moore, Jason Porter, and Paul Hughes walked from The Marine Travel Arena in Crosby to The Skuna Stadium in Atherton and raised £2,260 for South Sefton Food Bank. The Marine FC fans took on the 20 mile route, and when speaking to Steve he said that “whatever we can get for food banks we will try and do.”

Moore described how Sefton’s food bank is struggling and said: “Even though the likes of Liverpool and Everton have fan supported food banks, because of the area that we are in, South Sefton do not get any help with it. It all goes to the Walton and Anfield area, so we started doing a collection around Sefton.”

The three men have raised up to £2,260 from the walk to Atherton and aren’t stopping there as they are planning to do food collections at the rest of Marine’s home games, with a bucket collection as well as they are aiming to raise £2,500. The 53-year-old explained how they are asking for people to give “whatever they can spare to help others who are struggling” and how “every little helps.”

The recent boost in popularity for the Marine first team has massively helped communities all around Liverpool as they are generating more ticket sales and money than ever.

The Merseyside-based club faced Tottenham Hotspur at home back in 2021 in the third-round of the FA Cup, and the game which was played behind closed doors generated more than £300,000 for the non-league club through virtual sales.

They sold £10 virtual tickets to the match as fans could not attend and more than 30,000 people purchased a ticket, which ended the clubs fears of missing out on over £100,000 in commercial revenue if the game was played under normal circumstances.

Steve said: “Everything has changed since the Spurs game, it definitely had an impact on the club. There used to be about 300 fans on match day but now it is around 1200, it’s amazing.”

When asked about watching football from a young age, Moore said: “I have been supporting Marine since about 1985 so for about 35 years, and I think Jason is the same. We tend to go home and away and do collections for food banks every month and we’ve done that for the past year.” Steve spoke about the physical difficulty of the walk, he said: “I definitely ached a bit the next morning, it took us about 10 hours and we started at 3 in the morning. I’m not as fit as the other two lads so it was a struggle to keep going at times, but we just powered on. Plenty of food and water was key, and a few red bulls!”

The man from Seaforth was “surprised” at the response and how much food and supplies they have managed to collect for Sefton Food Bank.

He said: “Jason decided to do this walk, he’s my cousin and asked if I fancied doing it, and I said yeah why not. Paul is also doing the London marathon at the end of April, so he asked if he could come along and do it with us to get some miles in his legs.”

The cost of living crisis has affected thousands of families across the UK, and Steve shared his empathy about what people must be going through: “It’s something that me and my family have been affected by, so I can’t imagine what others are battling with. So even if we can help just a little bit, we know it can make a big difference to some people. That is the main reason why we have done this walk, to help people. The price of food right now is crazy, so we know how much people can benefit from food banks at a time like this.”

The life-long Everton fan also discussed doing more walks like this again in the future and said he would “definitely do more of them as long as they are helping out a good cause.”

Moore said: “We just want to help families that are struggling at the moment, just knowing that what we have done has helped someone makes it all worth it.”

By Sadie Meakin Images accreditted to Steve Moore

Messi, R9, Comebacks and Unexpected Heroes: The Best UEFA Champions League Quarter-final Ties

By Liam McDermott

With the Champions League Quarter-finals on the horizon, many will be reminiscing about those that have been and gone before, what new scripts will be written and consigned to the history books of European football’s greatest competition? Will any be quite as entertaining as these? Let’s hope so…

Barcelona vs Arsenal: (6-3 on aggregate, 2010) Of course, we can’t talk about the best moments in Champions League history, at any stage of the competition, without mentioning Lionel Messi and this occasion isn’t an exception.

The first-leg, played at the Emirates, saw Arsene Wenger’s title contenders go pound-for-pound with Pep Guardiola’s side who had completed a remarkable treble, the previous season. With Barcelona 2-0 up on the hour-mark, thanks to a Zlatan Ibrahimovic brace, it looked like the Gunners’ conquest for an elusive Champions League title was over before this tie had properly started. However, a Theo Walcott goal and Cesc Fabregas penalty meant that Arsenal would go into the second-leg on level terms – while Barca would be without captain Carles Puyol, who was dismissed for conceding Fabregas’ penalty.

In the return leg, it looked like a formidable comeback was complete – with a Nicklas Bendtner goal turning the tie on its head.

However, not going quietly, Messi decided to take matters into his own hands. The Argentine toyed with the Arsenal defence all evening, dispatching four goals – each remarkable in equal measure and leaving the Arsenal players red-faced, as they were dumped out of the competition.

Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur (4-4 on aggregate – Tottenham win on away goals, 2019)

A solitary goal from Heung-Min Son, in Spurs’ maiden European fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium saw them hold the advantage, ahead of what would prove to be an electrifying second-leg at the Etihad Stadium. The opening 21 minutes saw the two sides exchange five goals – the quickest five in the history of the competition. Raheem Sterling brought the tie level, after four minutes – before Son turned the match around with a brace, followed by Bernardo Silva and Sterling turning it on its head. City were finally handed the advantage, when cometh the hour, cometh the man –Sergio Aguero gave them a 4-2 lead on the night, with half an hour of normal time to play.

AS Roma vs Barcelona (4-4 on aggregate –AS Roma win on away goals, 2018)

At the same stage of the competition as Manchester City and Spurs’ titanic tussle, this tie from the previous campaign had the same scoreline – with the added bonus of a colossal comeback.

However, Spurs’ Fernando Llorente would prove to be the hero – stunning the stadium with a goal that gave Mauricio Pochettino’s side the lead, on away goals. There was more to come, as VAR came into play, as Aguero was adjudged to be offside – putting an end to Sterling’s goal celebrations and City’s hopes of a first Champions League title.

Whereas Roma’s compatriots AC Milan had been subject to the revival of Barca’s fellow Spanish club Deportivo la Coruna, 14 years prior – this time it was the Italian club’s turn to overhaul the deficit.

Following a resounding 4-1 win for the Catalonian giants, at the Nou Camp – many fancied them to match that performance, or at least hold out for the return leg at the Stadio Olimpico. However, once again, an early goal would change the landscape of this tie – when Edin Dzeko’s finish after five minutes had Barca on the ropes. Dzeko would play another significant role, winning a penalty just before the hour mark – which saw club legend Daniele De Rossi, who scored an owngoal in the first-leg, put I Giallorossi within a goal away from advancing to the semi-finals.

With less than 10 minutes of normal time to play, Cengiz Under’s corner was flicked home by Kostas Manolas – he too avenged his own-goal from the first-leg. Roma had “risen from their ruins”. Barcelona’s hopes of European glory were in ruins.

Manchester United vs Real Madrid (5-6 on aggregate, 2003)

Manchester United had a mountain of great magnitude to climb in this tie, having to overturn a 3-1 deficit against the reigning champions, as they returned to home soil. It wasn’t for the want of trying for Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils, though – as we had seen throughout his reign, they were capable of the incredible. It looked like there could have been another remarkable overhaul, but all hopes of this happening were all but shattered – when Ronaldo, more on him shortly, opened the scoring after 12 minutes.

Future Los Blancos forward Ruud Van Nistelrooy reduced the deficit just before half-time, but for O Fenomeno to have his say on proceedings, once more.

Following Ivan Helguera’s own-goal, Ronaldo would complete his hat-trick – putting Real Madrid in front, for the third time that evening, before being given a rousing reception from the travelling and home faithful alike, as he was substituted.

A brace, including a textbook free-kick from future Galactico

David Beckham, saw United lead for the first time, that evening – but it wasn’t enough for them to advance.

by Liam McDermott