Warrington Rylands vs Hebburn Town, FA Vase factfile

THE current holders of the Buildbase FA Vase are the next team trying to knock Warrington Rylands 1906 off the Wembley trail.

Hebburn Town arrive at Gorsey Lane with the trophy safely tucked away in their Tyneside home having defeated fellow Northern League side Consett 3-2 at Wembley on Monday in the final of the 2019-20 competition.

Hebburn had to twice come from behind in the game held over from last season before Olly Martins scored the winning goal in the second half.

The celebrations that followed Oliver Martin's FA Vase-winning goal for Hebburn Town. Picture by John Walton/PA Wire

> The three key players set to return to the Warrington Rylands team to face Hebburn Town

So apart from being the current holders of the FA Vase and a team looking to return to the national stadium in two weeks, the big question is who are Hebburn Town and where have they come from?

Hebburn is a small town dating back to the 8th century on the south bank of the River Tyne situated in between the towns of Jarrow and Gateshead.

Originally part of the private Ellison Estate, it was made an independent Urban District in 1894. Located in the historic County of Durham, it became part of the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear in 1974.

The football club was formed in 1912 as a works team for employees of a local engineering firm A Reyrolle & Company, playing under the company’s name until 1986 when they adopted the name of their town, becoming Hebburn Reyrolles before dropping the Reyrolles tag in 1988 and adding the Town suffix in 2000.

Starting life in the Jarrow & District Junior League, Reyrolles played in various local leagues before joining the Northern League’s Second Division in 1989. Having previously been promoted to the First Division three times and relegated back into the Second, they returned to the top flight in 2018 and have since developed into one of the area’s best teams.

In their first season back in Division One – the last season to be completed before Covid-19 struck – Hebburn finished second behind Dunston UTS with 66 points from 34 games.

They carried their good form into the two abandoned seasons, being third with 62 points from 31 games when time was called on the 2019-20 season and top of the table in 2020-21 with 33 points from 12 games when the campaign was halted.

Known as the Hornets due to their black and yellow colours, they are one of three Northern League clubs to have been invited to apply for promotion to Step Four in the FA’s league restructure, which takes place this year.

Hebburn Town will be the fourth team from the Northern League Rylands will have faced this season in the FA Vase. The other three – Jarrow, Shildon and West Auckland Town – have all been dispatched by via penalty shoot-outs.

Will Hebburn Town be successful in their quest to play at Wembley twice in a month? Or will Rylands take another step closer to a first Wembley appearance?

If so, will they do it in normal time or will they need penalties again?

> Find out how you can stream Warrington Rylands' clash with Hebburn Town here