Northern League Division 1
12 April 2008
Bishop Auckland 3 :
Team: Chris
Porter, Lee Foster, Dominic Gamble, Kevin Dixon (Luke Ball 58
mins), Martin Langley, Paul Moss, Joe Fairish, Lee Ellison (Paul Crager 64
mins), Gavin Parkin, Carl Chillingsworth (Amar Purewal 81 mins), Darren
Richardson
Results had been
reasonably kind to Bishops in the two weeks since the win over Seaham Red Star
so Bishops went into today’s Sunderland Nissan game still desperately needing a
win to keep Division One survival hopes alive.
A quiet start to
the game, and there were no great chances until the game exploded on 29 minutes
when Porter was fouled trying to gather the ball and the ball was lobbed over
his head. Lee Foster stretched out an arm
to block the goalbound lob, and received the inevitable red card for his
troubles. Down to ten men, and facing a
penalty, things were looking tough.
However, Paul
Robinson gave Bishops a first lifeline when with Porter diving to his left, he
dragged his spot kick a yard wide of the opposite post.
Bishops were still
on the ropes though, and just minutes later Robinson beat the offside trap and
had the freedom of the park to slot home the game’s opening goal but again he
shot wide. A minute later Nissan hit the
bar. Was this going to be Bishops day ?
39 minutes on the
clock when Bishops broke and Fairish found space on the right. He took his time before firing goalward, but
The second half
started and within a couple of minutes Bishops had unexpectedly doubled the
lead. A ball into the box from Gamble was
partially cleared but Parkin teed the ball up and lashed a volley into the net
for 2-0.
Parkin should have
been allowed to make it 3-0 on 50 minutes when a ball over the top caught out
the Nissan defence. The striker was
thwarted by having his shirt pulled from behind, but inexplicably neither of
the adjacent officials saw what would have been a penalty and red card offence.
Regardless, the ten
men pressed on, and good work down the right between Parkin and Chillingsworth
ended with Parkin finding space inside the box near the goal line. A fierce low cross was turned into his own
net by Reay to make it 3-0.
Luke Ball replaced
the struggling
Chillingsworth was
unlucky not to add a fourth on 72 minutes when his shot was tipped over by
Parkin had two
great chances to wrap things up on 84 minutes.
First a shot from 12 yards was tipped over the bar. Then from the resulting corner, he headed
over the bar from inside the six yard box.
Bishops were
cruising to a comfortable victory until 87 minutes when Ryan rounded two
defenders and slotted home from close range to make it 3-1. Alarm bells were seriously ringing when a
second “consolation” was scored in injury time but just seconds after the
restart the final whistle went.