29th October 2008 Northern League Division 1 - Shildon 3 South Shields 2

Shildon: 1) A.Spence. 2) J.Butler. 3) I.Watson. 4) W.Clarke. 5) J.Hutton. 6) D.Arkley. 7) S.Walklate. 8) D.Moore (c). 9) W.Byrne. 10) P.Watling. 11) L.Chapman.

Subs. 12) A.Richardson. 14) J.Keegan.

South Shields: 1) A.Clark. 2) C.Russell. 3) D.O'Brien. 4) J.Oates. 5) S.Fitzpatrick. 6) C.Hackworth. 7) T.Coe. 8) J.Wightman. 9) W.Crew. 10) P.Taylor. 11) R.Addison.

Subs. 12) S.Parkin. 13) L.O'Neil. 14) D.Graham. 15) D.Casson. 16) J.Perry.


Well getting to Shildon was like a mystery tour as it seemed the route I took didn't sign-post Shildon at all and the first I knew I'd arrived was when I turned right into a main street and there was this arch saying "Shildon", gawd bless the inventor of sat-naffs. :O)

The match got under way on a freezing cold night where the more layers you wore the better. The early stages of the game was fairly even as both sides tested each other out. There was not much pattern at this stage but Shields did manage a couple of good passages of play, firstly on 6 minutes Chapman fouled Paul Taylor and from the free kick Willie Crew forced a throw in level with the edge of the Shildon penalty area. From the throw in James Oates was able to get a shot on target but lack power and Spence gathered the ball without difficulty. Within a minute came really close to taking the lead when taylor broke down the right and crossed in and the keeper fumbled the ball and it ran behind him and narrowly past the back post.

Totally out of the blue Shildon took the lead in the 13th minute when Duncan O'Brien failed to clear and with Andy Clark unable to get down quick enough Chapman was onto it in a flash to roll the ball into the net from 10 yards. This fired up Shildon and they applied pressure on the Shields defence. Chapman in particular was causing all kinds of problems with his pace and direct running and Clark had to pull off a superb save in the 18th minute to keep the defecit at one goal. In the 20th minute however Shields equalised through Jonny Wightman when he gained possession 30 yards out, took three paces forward and unleashed a powerful shot high into the top left hand corner of the Shildon goal with the keeper well beaten. :O)

Suddenly the game went through a stage of end to end attacking by both teams when firstly Wightman broke down the left in the 25th minute and got a cross in but this floated narrowly over the bar, and within a minute it was Butler out on the left hand touchline who fired a cross in and for a moment it looked that Clark had been caught out by the flight of the ball, but he managed to get back and tip over at the expense of a corner.

On the half hour Moore shrugged off the challenge of Tony Coe and laid the ball off to Chapman who shot from 20 yards but Clark pulled off the save. On 33 minutes following a throw in on the right in their own half Shields made good progress when Crew back-headed the throw on to Taylor and Willie continued his run and Taylor's flick on was into the path of Crew leaving him in a 50/50 race with the keeper, only just won by the keeper. Couple of minutes later it was Shildon coming back through Moore, whose free kick was curled past the left hand angle of the goal. Paul Taylor then got away down the left but put his cross over the bar. In the 37th minute O'Brien collected a yellow card while conceding a free kick 30 yards out from goal. Moore took the kick quickly hoping to catch the Shields defence out as they organised the wall.
Fortunately Clark was alert to this and as the ball curled round the wall heading for the right hand side of the net, Clark got across and hoofed it clear.

5 minutes before the break Addison tried his luck but his shot was easily taken by Spence in the Shildon goal. In the 42nd minute Shildon had the ball in the Shields net after Moore had fed Byrne who then tapped in from a couple of yards out but their celebrations were cut short as the linesman's flag was held aloft. A minute later Wightman set Willie Crew clear on goal but the flag went up for offside but the general feeling of Shields supporters at that end was that there was no way Willie was offside. A disappointing decision that one. So the halft time break arrived with honours even.

The second half was under way and Shields scored a very well worked goal in the 47th minute as Paul Taylor got away clear down the left side and beat the full back to reach the bye-line before pulling the ball back into the path of Willie Crew who fired home from 10 yards. Well worked and well taken. :O) After this shock to their system, Shildon set about putting Shields under pressure as they tried to pull level and for the next few minutes the Shields defence were keeping their shape. However, in the 62nd minute Shildon got their equaliser, albeit with good fortune. Watson the full back was out on the left touchline and sent in a cross come shot that sailed beyond Clark and into the top right corner of the Shields net. There weren't many in the ground who thought he meant that to happen. :O(

Shildon continued to press forward now and in the 70th minute Clark needed to pull off another fine save, and yet again a further minute later, Shields then made a change by taking off Simon Fitzpatrick and bringing on Darren Casson, but Shildon were still coming forward at every opportunity. However in the 77th minute Willie Crew was put clean through by a Paul Taylor flick on, but the flag went up for offside for what was a very debateable decision. This was followed by another flag up a couple of minutes later when Taylor got through. By now there was a feeling that if the Shildon centre half put his hand up, the flag would automatically go up too.

Disaster struck Shields with 7 minutes remaining when Byrne was allowed to make a run across the edge of the box before playing a through ball to Chapman, clear and looking suspiciously offside, and he planted the ball into the net from 8 yards. Shildon then made a substitution, bringing on Richardson for Byrne as they then looked to run down the clock. Shields tried to get back level in the remaining minutes but there was to be no joy. Frustrating to see Shields again lose a game after they had been in a position to win but here's hoping they can start holding on to some of these positions in the coming games.

One last thing about sat-naffs. Mine wouldn't switch on for the return journey, so there was I in the middle of nowhere with no sign posts of any use. Just then the team bus came past, 'excellent' I thought, I'll just follow them. Followed them a few hundred yards before they then had to do a u-turn. After me own u-turn I was after them again. :O) Then came to a junction where they turned left then right further up the road. Me though, got held up at the junction and by the time I got going they were well away. Ended up going through Newton Aycliffe before eventually arriving home. Pulled up outside me front door and tried once more to switch the sat-naff on, and yup, it came on. Sat-naff inventors??? Damn you!!! :O)