IN the glory days of non-league football, which are to be commemorated in a museum, word would have gone round for the last person out of Shildon on November 9 to turn out the lights.

Nowadays they'll be more concerned that someone stays behind to keep guard, which reflects the decline of community spirit just as much as the struggles of non-league clubs to stay afloat.

Still, such notions will rightly be cast aside when half the town flocks to Notts County in a fleet of charabancs for the first round proper of the FA Cup.

It's a marvellous opportunity for Shildon to rekindle the spirit of old, to make sure that as many senior citizens as possible get to the match and to use the occasion to generate sustained interest in the club. After reaching this stage with a 6-0 win on Saturday, there's every chance they will lose by a similar margin to the professionals of the world's oldest club.

But that shouldn't be allowed to spoil a wonderful day or convince the townsfolk that their team is not worth supporting.

They are probably far more worthy of support than the prima donnas of the Premiership clubs, whose liking for ripping off the public was confirmed again this week with the depressing news that Newcastle's profits are still helping to line Douglas Hall's pockets.

How about a slogan along the lines of: "Forget Shearer and Shola, support Shildon."

There is an irony, of course, in the fact that Shildon are doing well at a time when it is proposed to site the non-league museum next door in Bishop Auckland.

It's a nice idea, but will anyone under 60 be interested? Hopefully they will if Shildon's success can be used to kick-start a resurgence in non-league interest.

ASHINGTON lad Stephen Harmison is a Magpies fan, but he is also a big supporter of Bedlington Terriers and will be probably be off to watch them this weekend after flying home from Bangladesh.

Harmison knows all about community spirit and came home after one week of an England Under 19 tour to Pakistan partly because he was homesick.

It landed him with a reputation which took some time to shake off, but the England selectors are to be congratulated for persevering with him as he was clearly thriving in Bangladesh until he suffered a back injury.

As he isn't required for the one-day games he has been sent home for tests and treatment in the hope of being fit for the second leg of the tour to Sri Lanka.

His five-wicket haul in the first innings of the first Test in Dhaka was only the sixth of his first-class career, but his recent progress suggests there will be many more to come.

He took nine wickets in the match, which is a personal best, whereas one of his tour colleagues, Richard Johnson, once took ten in an innings for Middlesex.

The fact that it happened nine years ago is an indication that Johnson has been slow to reach maturity.

Too slow to have a future at Test level, surely, especially given his injury record.

Harmison comes from tougher stock, but considering that England still have to go to Sri Lanka and the West Indies this winter it's amazing that his central contract has not been renewed.

Fast bowlers, far more than other cricketers, need protecting and an Australian surgeon this week told a sports injury prevention conference in Canberra that pacemen should have a three-month lay-off every year.

He said he had treated five Test bowlers for chronic ankle injuries in which bones were like "a nut being crushed in a nutcracker."

IT'S good to see that Clive Woodward has named only 15 men in his team to play Uruguay at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday.

The simplest punishment for having 16 on the field against Samoa would have been to play with 14 against Uruguay, but there is never a simple slap on the wrist in this crazy modern world.

There always has to be a lengthy and expensive high-level inquiry, and it was extraordinary to find that England had a lawyer on the six-man delegation they flew to the hearing in Sydney yesterday.

Is there are any eventuality they haven't covered in their quest for the World Cup?

All they have to do now is regain the form they were showing before the event began, and if I am to regain my initial optimism nothing less than a 30-point winning margin will do against Wales in the quarter-finals.