Northern League Division 1
5 December 2007
Bishop Auckland 3 :
Team: Chris Porter,
Liam Bramley, Dominic Gamble, Michael Coghlan, Paul Crager, James Crossman, Joe
Fairish, Gus DiLella, Gavin Parkin, Carl Chillingsworth (Darren Richardson
75mins), Sean Joseph (Andrew Gilbert 79mins)
Bishops came from behind twice before grabbing an unlikely
victory with a last minute winner on a windy night at
Bishops had the strong wind at their backs, but went behind
on 24 minutes when a cross was palmed by Porter out onto Moat’s head and rebounded
back into the net. Bishops were level
four minutes later with another unlikely goal.
Joseph did some great work down the left and found space to fire in a
low cross which defender Liddle blasted home past his own ‘keeper to make it
1-1.
The equaliser gave the Two Blues some confidence, and
chances started to come. Just after the
half hour, Parkin ran free and crossed from the right to Joseph, but his
goalbound prod was blocked. Parkin was
again back in action soon after and turned to fire a first time shot just a few
degrees wide of the far post.
However,
As is often the case, the obvious advantage of the wind
never materialised, as Bishops played better in the second half. Fairish created some chaos on the edge of the
area before feeding Parkin whose shot beat the ‘keeper but was deflected wide
for a corner by a defender’s boot.
More bad defending from Bishops on 49 minutes but again
Porter came to the rescue with a tip onto the bar to keep Bishops in the game.
On 56 minutes Bishops were level. A near post corner from Joseph was glanced by
Gamble to Crager who guided the ball into the far corner of the net.
Soon after Bishops should have had the opportunity to take
the lead when Parkin’s shot from the edge of the area was kept out by a two
handed save, this time by a defender, but the referee judged this legal. Bramley then made a good run cutting in
from the right before firing a shot which just missed the post.
Richardson and Gilbert replaced Chillingsworth and Joseph
with fifteen minutes going, and this added some fresh legs to the attack, but
the game looked to be heading for a draw until Bramley made another run down
the right wing and crossed for Parkin who was again in the centre of the
action, nudging the ball to the area where Richardson was rampaging. The young midfielder fired in a shot which
was heading well wide before Jones deflected the ball past his own ‘keeper to
give Bishops the points.