NORTH EAST TO HOST ENGLAND INTERNATIONAL?

FA: England recently played in the "North of England" 2 years ago.

I recently contacted The FA suggesting three stadiums in the Tees Valley area of the North East as potential host venues for England Women's international matches and for the final of the FA Women's Cup.

Darlington Arena, Co. Durham

The stadiums were; Hartlepool's Victoria Park with a capacity of 7,856, the 25,000 capacity Darlington Arena in Darlington, Co. Durham and Middlesbrough's 34,742 capacity Riverside Stadium. 
The FA's response to this suggestion was "England have played internationals in the North of England in recent years including against Serbia in Doncaster in November 2011, and against the Netherlands in Manchester in June 2012."

The Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough has previously held big international matches including England men's Euro 2004 qualifier against Slovakia in 2003, 

Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough

the London 2012 Team GB men's and women's Olympic squads' warm-up games against Brazil. Middlesbrough have also hosted four men's Under 21 international matches. However, the North East is seemingly overlooked when it comes to venue selection for women's games despite several key members of the England squad being native to the region. England's recent World Cup game against Ukraine  which England won 4-0 at Shrewsbury Town's Greenhous Meadow Stadium in Shropshire, with a capacity of 9,875 and it followed England's 9-0 win over Montenegro at Brighton's American Express Community Stadium with a capacity of 30,750. The size of the grounds hosting England games appears to be inconsistent but, after another email to The FA, I received this reply; "The size of stadium depends on the expected attendance."
Therefore, any of the stadiums suggested would be a suitable choice, based on size. So, why has the North East been overlooked? As many 'Northerners' know, the North East is a void in a northern corner of England and civilisation is difficult to locate among the "large, desolate areas" and the primitive native folk can be excitable.

In 2003, Middlsebrough's final home game of the season was

Red: Tees Valley, Yellow: Doncaster, Blue: Manchester

against Tottenham Hotspur in which Spurs were defeated. A section of their fans attempted to scale the divides in the concourse of the Riverside Stadium and continued to cause trouble outside of the ground. Cleveland police and the Middlesbrough stewards were praised for their handling of the situation a month before the England international match.
Hartlepool's pitch and it's groundsman have won awards for the standard of the playing surface which surpasses many premier league pitches.

The North East has just seen two teams enter into the new, expanded FA Women's Super League 2. As the two teams, both from Wearside, faced each other in an opening derby fixture, it became the first WSL game to take place in the North East since it's birth in 2010. Several of the current England set-up previously played for Sunderland and originate from all over the North East. Since the FA WSL was formed, these women had to move away from the region to play top flight football as there was no chance of promotion for any teams left out of the WSL. Sunderland have won the top division behind WSL three years running and are among the favourites to become the first team to be promoted into WSL1. Even if the region can have a successful team in the top flight, will it make a difference to the FA's selection?

With England's next four international matches to be played away from home, it will be some time before they're back on home soil. When England's women return home, where will they play? The North East? No closer than 85 miles from arguably the most passionate football fans in England?