Mark Taylor played in the 2009 FA Vase Final but it was his last game, as soon after that great day out he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Despite his illness, he has been heavily involved in the organisation of the ‘Ten Years On’ event and here he explains more about the special reunion.
“As the tenth anniversary of the 2009 victory at Wembley approached, myself and a few players I am in regular contact with such as Paul Robinson, Phill Bell, David Coulson and Darren Timmons thought it would be a good idea to approach the club to do a reunion match. The initial thought was to play the current Whitley Bay team but a lot of the lads and management are very much past it now. I suggested that we could combine the three Vase squads and have a North v South of the Tyne match. This idea quickly took off and Gary Ormston and David Pounder were tasked with letting the players and management know most of which fortunately could attend to the May 5th date set. It would have been nice for everyone to attend and play but unfortunately that was not possible but 90% of players will be playing like Sparky (Lee Kerr), Paul Chow, Paul Robinson and Chris Moore. The event was shared on social media and Whats App groups were created. As you can imagine the banter started to flow mostly around Rowey smashing everyone he could!
Ian Chandler and Steve Cuggy are going to manage south and North respectively with help from Gavin Fell and Glen Martin. The initial thoughts were to raise funds for MND but the tragic death of Robbie Livermore while we were organising things shifted the fund raising to raising money for his family. The club got behind the event straight away producing a programme with memories over the three years, as well as support for Robbie’s family. Everyone is really looking forward to reuniting with old teammates and fans. It would be great to see as many fans as possible there to watch the game and reminisce about the most successful period in the history of the club, and about non league football nationally.”
*The Ten Years On game takes place on Sunday, kick off at 1.00pm. A souvenir programme will be on sale, price £1.50.
