THE highs and lows of the beautiful game were felt across County Durham this weekend.

Fans were joyous and invaded the pitch after Spennymoor Town beat Stourbridge 1-0 in the EvoStik Premier Division play off final on Saturday, to earn their third promotion in four years and a place in the Vanarama National League North.

Club director Steven Lawson said: “The club’s progress of the last four years, since winning the FA Vase at Wembley, means a lot not only for the football club but the town as well.

“To be in the same league as Darlington and York City, after they were unfortunately relegated, is going to be massive. It will pull people to the town, local businesses should benefit.

“We feel well ready for the next level, the chief exec Brad Groves and the board have put the infrastructure in place and whilst there is always room for improvement we feel equipped for the next level, the ground and football. The atmosphere on Saturday was tremendous, there were 1,700 at the Brewery Field and the best thing was the appreciation shown by both sets of fans.

“Spennymoor and Stourbridge supporters showed a mutual respect and came on the pitch to congratulate and commiserate together, shaking hands in friendship.”

Less than 20 miles away, crestfallen Sunderland fans are still absorbing the crushing end of their ten years at the top flight.

Thousands of fans stayed away as relegation was confirmed in 0-1 loss to Bournemouth, with the chants “we want Moyes out” echoing around the Stadium of Light as the final whistle was blown.

Norman Young, who has been following Sunderland for 46 years, said: “The players they have brought in were simply not good enough. They have put them on long contracts – they can’t get rid of these players and they have still got players out now that we are paying wages to. It is going to be very difficult. A lot of the fans now are certainly turning again David Moyes.”

Season ticket holder Caroline Smith said: “We should have gone down last year, even the season before and start to rebuild.

“This year we didn’t have a chance at all. We just ended up with injury after injury.

“I believe that if we didn’t have all the injuries we would have had the season we would have had regardless of whether it was Moyes or Allardyce and we would have been middle range.

Meanwhile, referee Mark Clattenburg, of Chester-le-Street, took charge of his final Premier League game on Saturday when he presided over the match between West Brom and Leicester, before heading to Saudi Arabia to work.

The referee had announced his departure as a top-flight official in February to take a role with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.