Northern League Division 1

1 December 2007

 

Bishop Auckland 0 : Morpeth Town 2

 

 

Team:  Chris Porter, Liam Bramley, Dominic Gamble, Michael Coghlan, Paul Crager, James Crossman, Joe Fairish, Kevin Dixon (Neville Fuller 89mins), Gavin Parkin, Carl Chillingsworth, Gus DiLella (Sean Joseph 55mins)

Bishops seem unable to recreate their decent away form to Dean Street, and slumped to defeat to mid table Morpeth Town who dominated the second half on a cold and windy December day.

 

An unchanged team took to the pitch and Bishops started well enough.  The first incident of any note was an unusual one, when a member of the Morpeth Town management team wandered out of the technical area to the touchline and picked up the ball which Fairish was furiously chasing.  Joe was then body checked to the ground, but surprisingly the referee thought a stern lecture to the Morpeth official was sufficient.

 

Parkin had two decent chanced.  The first midway through the half saw the forward turn blind and spin, but his shot went straight into Poskett’s arms.  Minutes later another half chance again saw Parkin in, but his low shot was knocked clear by Poskett’s feet.

 

Coghlan saw his direct free kick tipped over the bar by the Morpeth ‘keeper on 43 minutes, but overall the first half was a fairly even affair.

 

Only Morpeth came out in the second half.  The opening goal came on 53 minutes.  Porter pushed a cross straight into the path of a Morpeth forward who fired home to make it 1-0.  Morpeth missed another good chance a minute later when a low cross was side footed wide by Herron.

 

Crossman conceded a penalty on 65 minutes when contesting a jumped header, but Porter dived to his left to save the spot-kick.  However, the reprieve was short-lived and Young added a second from a quick break after Dixon’s misplaced pass deep in Morpeth territory.

 

Bramley fired straight at the goalkeeper after good interplay with Fairish on 72 minutes, but Bishops never really looked like getting back into the game, and heads seemed to drop well before the final whistle signalled another home defeat.

 

 

Fixtures and Results