For our visit to South Shields Reserves Ash Clark, Ash Turnbull the Gordon brothers Luke Naylor and Josh Noble were missing, Joe Osbourne Mattie Gardener Kalon Lloyd Sam Cook returned with Mark Bell in goal
We were looking to get back to winning way after having the better of the top two teams and again in midweek at Ashbrook but only came away from these games with one point when it should have been nine after failing to take several chances in all of these games and coming up against some great goalkeeping.
We made an excellent start on a great surface forcing the home back and it was no surprise when we took the lead on 13 minutes when skipper Alex Marshall back from injury picked up a loose ball on the edge of the box to fire home a low drive for his 1st of the season but on 18 a cross from the right was deflected giving the home strike an easy chance Andy Hudson in the home goal was in great form making good saves from John Stephenson and Jamie Tumilty on 33 minutes Andy Blackburn retired with a hamstring injury and Dale Campion took over and 3 minutes later gave us the lead picking up the ball 35 yards out he spotted Hunter of his line and fired home with a great shot both teams were playing good open football as Campion was just wide and Craig Weatherill had what seemed a good goal ruled out and Tumilty had another effort well saved but on 44minutes we added to our lead Stephenson beat the keeper to a through ball but was brought down by Hunter and Marshall fired home the penalty.
It was Hunter in great form in the second half again making making 2 excellent saves from Stephenson and 1 from Tumilty who also saw a free kick come back of the post as Campion and Gardner were just wide a great advert for the league in an open game with the young home team playing some of the best football we have faced all season