2010/11 is incredibly only the 11th season Whitley Bay FC has entered the FA Vase competition. Since beating Thornaby 3-0 on the 21st October 2000 Whitley Bay have played a further 60 FA Vase games, winning 48, drawing 6 and losing only 7 times. It's fair to say Whitley Bay have enjoyed the FA Vase!

On the eve of this year's Semi Final Poole Town's manager, Tom Killick, called Whitley Bay the best ever FA Vase team.

Whitley have won the Vase on 3 seperate occassions; once at Villa Park when beating Tiptree 1-0 after extra time thanks to a goal from current boss Ian Chandler, and then in 2009 against Glossop at Wembley and again last year by a record 6-1 margin over Wroxham.

Since losing to Lowestoft 4-0 in the first leg of the 2008 semi final Whitley have created a new FA Vase record in going the next 25 matches without defeat, surpassing the previous record of 21 matches by Halesowen. By the time Coalville and Whitley Bay line up at Wembley stadium it will be 1,142 days since Whitley Bay last tasted defeat in the competition. On the subject of records, Whitley are currently tied with Billericay in winning the FA Vase on 3 occassions.

When speaking to any of the players who played in that first tie against Lowestoft it is clear to see that defeat that day has spurred them on ever since and despite the time which has passed none of them want to feel like that again.

Something which has made the FA Vase such a special competition for Whitley is the relationships we've built up with other clubs other the years and this is clear again this year, with good luck messages coming in from AFC Liverpool, Herne Bay, Dunstable and Dunston ahead of each subsequent game we've played. Marcus Law, who managed last year's semi final opponents, Barwell, has now moved on to Kettering Town in the Conference and was generous enough to offer Whitley training facilities en route to Poole.

Indeed such is the relationship we've built with our 2009 opponents, Glossop North End, that they travelled up to support a charity game played for Bay player Mark Taylor after last year's final and were also pre-season opponents this year.

While Whitley are hoping this will be their last season competing in the FA Vase, with promotion to the Evo-stik still a possibility at the time of writing, we will be looking for one more big performance from the lads against a free scoring Coalville Town.

Howay The Bay!