Northern League Division 1

5 January 2008

Bishop Auckland 1 : Northallerton Town 2

Team: Scott Pocklington, Liam Bramley, Dominic Gamble, Kevin Dixon, Paul Crager, James Crossman, Joe Fairish (Michael Coghlan 46mins), Luke Ball, Gavin Parkin, Carl Chillingsworth, Darren Richardson (Sean Joseph 63mins)

Another year, but not the greatest start to the new one. Scott Pocklington replaced his fellow Darlington player Nick Liversedge in goal and Darren Richardson started in a match played on an understandably heavy pitch on a cold and breezy January day.

The first half was a stodgy affair with both teams creating very little in the way of footballing entertainment. Northallerton missed a decent chance in the first five minutes and hit the post on 17 minutes. Chillingsworth headed wide on 35 minutes, and had a header tipped over by Wolfe on 40 minutes. Joe Fairish was unlucky not to open the scoring when he challenged the ‘keeper before half time but sustained an injury which saw him substituted at half time.

Bishops went behind on 58 minutes when Douglas knocked in a goal from a corner, and added a second on 78 minutes which should have killed off the game.

However, Gavin Parkin nearly dragged Bishops back in when he latched on to Ball’s forward pass to fire home a slightly deflected shot past Wolfe, and then on 88 minutes overran a through ball before firing in a shot which was deflected onto the outside of the post by a Town defender.

A disappointing game with two bad teams which Northallerton just about edged, leaving Bishops deep in relegation trouble with only 12 points from the last 16 games.

Fixtures and Results