Resurgent Mariners on course to make history

Crosby side Marine FC is embarking on new frontiers tomorrow (August 10) when the Mariners take on Oxford City in the club’s first season in National League North, the sixth tier of English football.

The highest level in the club’ 130-year history was attained by two promotions in three years under the expert leadership of seasoned manager, Neil Young, who achieved similar feats at former club Chester FC.

Marine’s accession to National League North was at the expense of Macclesfield, on Bank Holiday Sunday May 6, when the Crosby side took 1,200 fans – their home average – to Macc and triumphed 2-1, in a bitter-sweet denouement for former Leicester City star, Robbie Savage, who was behind the rise of the Phoenix Cheshire club in 2020 and is now its head coach.

It was he who drew out Marine to play the then Premier League leaders, Tottenham Hotspur, for their January 2021 third round FA Cup clash at the Marine Travel Arena, which Spurs eventually ran out as 5-0 winners, in front of a worldwide TV audience estimated at 30 million, and in a match that put rocket boosters under the North Liverpool side.

When the draw was made in late December 2020, Spurs sat 161 places above Marine, a record for the FA Cup.

Although played behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions, the match grabbed global attention and the Mariners sold 32,202 ‘virtual’ tickets for more than £300,000 that, along with TV payments, have funded improvements on and off the field that led to the side’s surge to National League North success.

Marine chairman, Paul Leary, admitted the Robbie Savage link was a “strange quirk of fate” for both parties.

“Robbie pulled out the Marine ball first, then he pulled out the Tottenham ball and even he was jumping for joy as he was conducting the draw,” he said.

“Little did he know, three years down the line, we would be knocking them out at Macclesfield which, in my 45 years at Marine, was probably the most exciting day in all that time.”

The significance of the Spurs game is marked with a wall at Marine’s ground bearing the name of all those who purchased a virtual ticket to boost the club’s coffers.

The financial fillip has been used to strengthen the playing squad and improve facilities. Paul said: “With the monies that we raised from FA Cup run, in terms of FA Cup prize money, TV fees and with the sale of virtual tickets, all of the money raised from that we reinvested into the facilities, both in the club rooms and installing the new quality pro football pitch.

“We raised £800,000 from the FA Cup run and all of that money was reinvested into the site.”

The new all-weather pitch has provided a valuable income stream for the club which hires it out to other sides for one-off games or tournaments.

Since the world saw Spurs manager, Jose Mourinho, his backroom staff and a multimillion-pound line-up of subs huddled on the cramped touchline, overshadowed by houses in the adjacent Rossett Road, Marine’s attendances have soared from an average of around 350 to more than 1,200 as interest in the Mariners rocketed, providing a further valuable income stream for the side which is run by a volunteer committee.

The club’s ambitions were illustrated in May this year when it announced plans to raise £5m to build a new 5,000-seat stadium, having identified three possible locations close to the existing ground, which originally opened in 1903.

At the same time, Marine would retain the current ground, formerly Rossett Park, as a valuable community asset, offering sporting facilities and leisure space in its club rooms and 1894 Bar and Bistro.

Paul Leary revealed a final decision on the preferred location for a new stadium is still to be made. He said: “Our first task is to locate a ground that is near to the Marine heartland and is of a sufficient acreage to build a reasonably-sized non-league stadium with a capacity of 5,000.”

Paul Leary, in front of the virtual ticket holders’ wall

He also insisted that the search for a new home will not detract from investing in the current stadium, with plans for further development.

He told TheBusinessDesk.com: “We are planning some further improvements to the stadium in the coming months – a TV gantry, a 135-seater covered stand at the top end of the ground and an extension to the office unit.

“This will improve further the excellent facilities at College Road.”

He reiterated that these developments are completely separate to plans for the new ground.

And he emphasised that the new ground is not dependent on staying in National League North next season.

Promotion is a huge step up for the club, which will be facing sides with bigger resources and finances, but outlining his hopes for the new season, he said: “We want to be competitive, we want to do our absolute best – if we can keep out of trouble and keep as far away from the bottom area of the league as possible.

“If someone were to say to me we will finish mid-table I would snap their hand off.”

A new initiative to generate more income is the launch of a flexi ticket, aimed at Everton and Liverpool fans who fit in Marine fixtures around their own club’s commitments.

It allows them to choose eight National League North home games and secure tickets for when either of the big two are playing away.

Remarkably, in 2019, Marine was relegated for the first time in its history, to Northern Premier League Division One North West following a couple of close calls at the wrong end of the Northern Premier League.

Under Neil Young’s leadership the side has achieved an incredible renaissance. But the chairman rejects any suggestion that its twin promotions are ahead of the business plan. He said: “Getting two promotions, I would say it’s in line with the plan.

“We extended manager Neil’s contract for a further three years.

“Neil is a hugely successful non-league manager, achieving triple promotions at Chester and what he has achieved at Marine, with two promotions in three years, and numerous FA Cup runs has been unbelievable.”