A regional daily is getting behind a local non-league football club’s bid to make its first trip to Wembley.

The Shields Gazette is following the fortunes of South Shields FC, who are one match away from playing in the FA Vase final at the famous London stadium.

The Vase is open to clubs across the country who play at English football’s eighth level and below, and Gazette reporters made the 400 mile round trip to the West Midlands on Saturday to run a live blog of the first leg of the team’s semi-final against Coleshill Town, which Shields won 1-0.

The club, known as the Mariners, have since featured on the Gazette’s front page several times as the newspaper builds up to this Saturday’s second leg with a series of articles being run under the banner of ‘Mariners on the March’.

Gazette managing editor Gavin Foster said: “The rise of South Shields Football Club over the last few seasons has been nothing short of phenomenal. They now regularly get gates of over 1,000 for a league match – which is unheard of in the Northern League Division One.

“This cup run has really brought the town together to get behind the team. Shops, business and schools are backing the Mariners and of course, as the local paper, we are raising the sail as high as we can.

“We did a live blog of the first leg of the semi-final, with our reporters travelling to the game with the team. And it will be a huge push this week as we head into the second leg – with one foot already on the Wembley turf.

“We’ve got coverage planned each day badged up with our ‘Mariners on the March’ logo. We’ve got everything crossed for the second leg, but we will behind them with every kick as a local paper should.”