Gateshead suffered a narrow miss in their attempt to secure what would have been remarkable promotion to the Football League. The team from Tyneside was seeking consolidation after a very difficult previous season that nearly saw them relegated. Anth Smith did not seem to have the required experience and nous despite keeping the team up and that showed early on in the new campaign. The team lost all of their first three games in charge and the manager decided to walk out himself, admitting that he could not deliver the results required. The fact that it happened so early in the season, with very little damage done, was the best thing that happened to the Heed as they were able to bring a much superior manager, in Gary Mills, and gave him enough time to transform the fortunes of the side. Mills, having won promotion from this league with York barely over an year before taking over, clearly had the pedigree and knowledge to make a decent group of players prosper. He actually had a very quick impact and the team won seven of his first ten games in charge while losing to only some of the big guns. The new manager insisted on possession football and patient play from the back. The players needed some time to get used to it but the team emerged as a very creditable play-off candidate from December onwards. They lost only to Luton in a pretty lengthy spell of games from November to February and gathered a number of good results that established them in the top five. The one problem with the squad was the lack of a proper goalscoring striker and the manager tried to rectify that by bringing in Jack Lester out of retirement. The veteran chipped in with some goals but was injured as well and the problems there persisted and a midfield was often asked to fill in there. On the other hand, the team was really strong down the wings with Jamie Marwood enjoyed a brilliant campaign throughout and Marcus Maddison coming through with some big displays since the turn of the year as well. Yet, the real backbone of the team was their superb defence with Ben Clark, James Curtis and Adam Bartlett all contributing to a great run of eight clean sheets in the last 11 game in the league. The team finished the season in great form, going unbeaten for 12 games, and a 2:0 win over Cambridge secured a place in the play-offs. The semi-final clash with Grimsby was decided in the second leg after a 1:1 draw in Cleethorpes and the Heed had just about enough to progress to the final despite also being a bit lucky. The final with Cambridge saw a very even and well-contested game but eventually the lack of cutting edge in the final third proved terminal for the Heed and their late rally was enough only to reduce the scoreline. Thus, a 2:1 defeat meant an end to their dream but that was still a massively successful season and a real building block for next season.
