GETTING on a year ago we told the unlikely story of how Easington Secondary Modern school, perched precariously on the Durham coast, had jointly won the English Schools FA under 16s trophy in 1975-76.

It was only the half of it. They’d also lifted the cup the season before, again jointly, with a side that included future Newcastle United man Stuart Robson and Alan Brown, who hit 25 goals in 128 appearances for Sunderland.

“I still find it difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the achievement, A good case can be made to support the assertion that this was the greatest school team ever,” writes Alan White in a new book chronicling the class of ’75 – and of ’76, too.

“Easington reaching the ESFA final is like Hartlepool United reaching the European Cup final,” said Stan Gelson, the school’s head of PE.

Alan White was still at Durham University in 1974-75, played Northern League football for Durham City. Within days or arriving to teach geography at Easington, he’d been asked to take over the football team, too.

“It was a complete surprise. I’d played at a good level but some of those kids could run rings round me,” he recalls. Three of the 74-75 team were from Murton, a couple of miles up the coast. The following year’s squad was drawn entirely from around the coalhouse doors.

He wrote about the 1975-76 season early last year, a sell-out book from which all proceeds went to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. “It soon became clear that there was another story to be told,” he says.

Now he’s chronicled the 1974-75 season, expanded upon what followed, produced a 35,000 word account – with 114 wonderfully evocative photographs – of what a brewer might suppose that secondary fermentation.

“I tried to teach them pretty patterns but mostly they just played the way they knew,” says Alan over a Christmas steak and ale pie. “It was like being down the pit, they played for each other, for their marras.”

Coached by Stan Gelson and by Eddie Moore, an innovative science master, the 1974-75 side met Scott Lidgett school, from Bermondsey, in the final. Confined like a 3ft seam, 5,000 squeezed into the Easington Colliery ground after the school turned down the chance to play at Roker Park.

Moore and Gelson argued that a half-empty Sunderland ground would lack atmosphere, while the atmosphere on the Welfare pitch would be “brilliant.” Probably they meant terrifying.

They also turned down an offer of replacement for their well-washed and numberless claret and blue shirts. “Numbers may help spectators but they also help the opposition,” Moore insisted.

The final was drawn, rules precluding a replay, the Co Durham boys winning the toss to have the trophy first. “Easington went wild with joy,” said a newspaper headline.

The following year’s final, against Coalville, took place on Ibstock Pennistone Rangers ground in Leicestershire – Leicester City’s Filbert Street ground in turn having been rejected because it was almost void of grass.

It ended 1-1, John Defty’s 45-yard effort in added time bouncing down from the bar to deny Easington an outright win. Again Easington called correctly to have first use of the trophy; again the colliery village went wild.

Alan White’s now 64, looks like he may not long have left school, became head of Manor College of Technology in Hartlepool, played 450 games in the Over 40s league, now lives at Thrintoft, near Northallerton.

Between the two books, there’s been a reunion of the national championship winning teams, moistly considerably less hirsute, and their school mates. One flew from Abu Dhabi.

Barry Bartholomew, a member of the 1975-76 squad who went from the coalface to become a successful businessman, died in October 2017 from mouth cancer, which he attributed to chewing tobacco down the pit. The new book is dedicated to him.

Sub-titled “The greatest school teams ever?”, Alan White’s book is available for £15 from Easington Village post office (0191-527-0682) or from Atkinson Print in Church Street, Hartlepool (01429 267849.) All proceeds will go towards developing junior sport in Easington and Murton.