Spennymoor Town

Graeme Lee took Spennymoor Town closer to Wembley glory than any manager since the club's formation, and in May 2025 he nearly got there twice over: the Moors went down 3–0 to Aldershot Town in the FA Trophy final. It capped a rise that started from nothing in 2005, when Spennymoor United folded and the town's football was rebuilt around a merger with Evenwood Town.

The breakthrough came in 2013, when Spennymoor beat Tunbridge Wells 2–1 at Wembley to lift the FA Vase. Two further promotions through the play-offs, in 2016 and 2017, carried the Moors into the National League North, the highest level they had reached.

Striker Glen Taylor is the name supporters reach for from that climb, the sort of forward a small-town club builds seasons around rather than simply selling on. The rivalry that means most now is local rather than historic: games against Darlington draw the sharpest edge, ahead of older grudges with Bishop Auckland and Gateshead.

Home games are played at The Brewery Field, a ground of around 4,300 that still carries only a few hundred seats among the standing space — a reminder that for all the cup runs, Spennymoor's football has stayed rooted in County Durham rather than growing away from it.