The day when 15,000 people watched South Shields boys play Liverpool - 70 years ago this month
Let’s hear it for the South Shields boys who did the town proud with a glory Cup run 70 years ago.
What a day it was when the team full of young talent played Liverpool Boys in the quarter-finals of the Schools Shield.
The game was held at the South Shields Football Club home ground at Simonside Hall.
It was an all-ticket match with estimates of 15,500 to 19,000 supporters in the crowd. The turnout was higher than any for the South Shields FC matches that season.
Among the boys who played that day for the South Tyneside team were Price, Fenton, White, Troupe, Bentham and Talbut and they’d already had a great season.
Earlier in the season, the Shields team beat the likes of Berwick, Newcastle, and East Ham in a cup replay.
They tackled Chesterfield and came up against Liverpool who beat them 3-0.
A previous Shields Gazette report from nine years ago said: “In those days there were 188 schools in Liverpool and only 29 in South Shields, so the Merseyside team had a much bigger pool of boys to choose from.
“Even so, the local lads (six of whom went to the grammar school) did themselves and the town proud, despite the defeat.”
To give you more of a reminder of life in the area at the time, all of this was also in the 1956 Shields Gazette;
It was a man’s world at Chris B. Watson’s retailer in the Market Place, South Shields. The self-styled ‘man’s shop’ was staging a final reductions sale.
The Pier Pavilion in South Shields was putting on a production of “Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? starring the Denville Players with admission prices from one and six.
Work boots were on sale at Allens in Laygate at 29 and 11.
And Smiths in Mile End Road had a special offer on three piece suites in fawn velour. Yours for a mere £36.
Get in touch if you have memories of life in the South Tyneside area 70 years ago.
We also would love to hear from anyone who was at the match and especially from any of the players who did the Borough proud that year.
Share your memories by emailing [email protected]