Athletic aim to finish on a high.

Byline: ANTHONY VICKERS

TEESSIDE Athletic are hoping there is a silver lining to a season that promised much but lost its shine at the death.

The ambitious Redcar outfit will take a travelling army of fans with them tonight as they go to Wearside League champions Newton Aycliffe in the final of the Monkwearmouth Charity Cup (KO 7pm).

"Finishing the season with a trophy would be fantastic after a bit of frustrating final few weeks," said Athletic secretary Kevin Fryett.

"We are all well up for it and can't wait." Ambitious Athletic will be taking a convoy of three coaches with them to Aycliffe for the big showdown and are in high spirits.

"We have had a week off to charge our batteries now, we are pretty much at full strength and the whole club is buzzing about this," said Kevin. "We are going there confident we can come home with some silverware." Athletic were looking to make a great leap forward this season and launch a serious title challenge, and they lodged an application for promotion to the Northern League.

And things looked good as they set off at an incredible pace. They were unbeaten in all league and cup competitions until late March and had their application to step up accepted - provided they finished in the top two.

But a series of weather wash-outs and progress in three cups meant they played just one league game in December and January and left them with a punishing fixture pile-up and they faded to finish fourth.

"In the end the fixtures caught up with us," said Fryett. "We played 12 games in 30 days in the final straight and we just ran out of bodies and ran out of steam.

"We got off to an incredible start to the season and we have played some excellent football but this is a very demanding league, especially when you do well in a few cups.

"But we have learned a lot about how you need to pace it and how many players you need to have signed on and we will be back better and stronger next year.

"Plus we have got the planning permission through to bring our ground up to Northern League standard.

"We will crack on with covered accommodation and hard standing and apply again but leave the work on the floodlights until we see where we are in the league." Athletic have reason to be confident going to champions Aycliffe tonight. They won 2-0 away at the top dogs in a superb display last month.

"That was probably our best performance all season," said Fryett. "We deservedly beat them then, in the home game, were a goal up when we lost our keeper so although we went down 5-1 that is a misleading result.

"We think we have the beating of them."

CAPTION(S):

UP FOR THE CUP: Greg Booth and Teesside Athletic (right) are looking to bring their season to a glorious end against Newton Aycliffe after their punishing schedule left them short of promotion