Northern League Division 1
26 September, 2009
West Allotment Celtic 1 : Bishop Auckland 1
Bishop Auckland – Peter Jeffries / Simon Ord / Jonathan Stokell / Chris Lawson / Paul Moss / Joe Grant / Gavin Parkin / Steven Salvin /
Wayne Gredziak / Tyson Masters (Darren Richardson 85mins) / Mark Henson
Subs not used – Jake Richardson / Carl Robinson / Adam Strong / Ryan Graham
Another beautiful sunny later summer Saturday as Bishops arrived at West Allotment for yet another away game. Allotment had failed to beat Bishops on their previous visits to the Blue Flames complex.
The match kicked off with a slight breeze assisting Bishops in the first half on what looked like an excellent surface, but the pitch turned out to be strangely slippery, and the game was littered with errors as players crashed to the floor from all angles.
Bishops opened the game from the kick off with a shot on goal on the second touch. However, after that speculative effort there was a real chance in the first minute when Masters and Gredziak broke quickly. Masters attempted a pass to the unmarked Gredziak but the ball fell short and was cleared.
Five minutes in and Bishops took the lead. Jeffries unleashed a huge wind assisted clearance and Gredziak hit it on the volley 20 yards from goal. It wasn’t the cleanest of connections, but the ball rolled in past the stranded ‘keeper Martin Hunter who twisted his knee and required several minutes of treatment before the game could restart.
The delay disrupted the game and neither side threatened until the 26th minute when a deflected Celtic lob hit the top of the bar then dropped down and hit the top of the bar again before being cleared by Parkin.
Celtic should have levelled on 39 minutes when Jeffries dived to save an initial shot and the ball flew back across goal to Lee McAndrew. The midfielder looked like he was facing an open goal tap in, but somehow skewed his shot across goal and Jeffries, still lying on the floor, gratefully grabbed the ball.
A strong chance for Bishops on 43 minutes when Ord curled a cross which was headed just wide by Henson. Celtic hit back and on the stroke of half time hit the bar again.
Second half and
Gavin Parkin’s low cross was hacked out for a corner on 50 minutes. From the corner a Henson header created chaos
with the defenders and the ball was eventually cleared off the line.
Bishops were
playing a much more solid game in the second half and pressed for a second
again on 56 minutes when Grediak’s header found Masters who fired just inches
wide.
The lead should
have been doubled on 66 minutes when Henson dribbled through two defenders but
inexplicably with just the ‘keeper to beat he squared for Masters who was taken
off guard by his fellow player’s unselfishness and allowed the defender to prod
the ball out for a corner. From the
corner Gredziak headed just wide.
West Allotment
equalised on 74 minutes with a ball over the top which John Campbell slotted
home at the far post.
2nd Half: Masters prowls in the six yard box
With the wind at
their backs West created problems but Bishops defence
held firm. A headed ‘goal’ was
disallowed for offside on 76 minute and Bishops had to defend four strikeable
free kicks in the latter stages of the half.
Tyson Masters
limped off on 85 minutes to be replaced by Darren Richardson.
Jeffries pulled off
a good save from a free kick by Campbell on 88 minutes with a good low shot and
from the resulting corner Joe Grant headed off the line to keep the scores level.
A
decent point which keeps Bishops out of the bottom three.