Northern League Division 1
5 October, 2010
Billingham Synthonia 1 : Bishop Auckland 0
Bishop Auckland –
Peter Jeffries / Steven Turnbull / Simon Ord / Wayne
Clarke / Chris Lawson / Craig Toman (Darren
Richardson 73mins) / Chris Bell / Stephen Salvin (capt)
/ Arran Wearmouth / Lewis Brown / Darren Atkinson
No Adam Emson tonight due to work commitments, and Darren Richardson dropped to the bench. Craig Toman came in for a first league start and Lewis Brown, recently signed from Esh Winning, made his debut.
A beautiful evening on a perfect pitch after this late switch of venues.
First chance to Bishops as Salvin looked like he had reason to be aggrieved after being pulled over in the box for what could well have been a penalty. Little did we know that this was merely the aperitif to an evening of farcical officiating.
A minute later and Wearmouth showed some skill on the left but his low hard cross was blocked in front of the line before being cleared.
18 minutes and Jeffries did well to parry a Jameson shot onto the post and out for a corner.
No great events until the half hour when a corner was half cleared to Bell who unleashed a thunderbolt which was flapped away.
35 minutes gone and Jeffries again made a good save to keep the scores level.
Three minutes later and Turnbull crossed well but the ball was agonisingly just past Wearmouth’s outstretched leg.
Injury time and a corner was cleared to Toman. The midfielder sliced awkwardly, and the ball slid to Wearmouth whose goal-bound shot was blocked.
HT: Billingham Synthonia 0, Bishop Auckland 0
Brace yourselves for the second half. This wasn’t a rollercoaster ride as such. There was a distinct lack of control in what was about to occur.
On 46 minutes Ord picked up a yellow card for a foul after chasing the ball out of defence. It should be noted that in the card carnage which followed, this offence warranted a yellow.
57 minutes and Bishops defence was breached and Toman committed the foul on the edge of the area. A penalty. After a long melee involving most of the players on the field Toman alone was booked. Jameson scored from the spot.
More cards for Bishop players followed.
Salvin was unlucky to see a dink go just over the bar with the ‘keeper off his line after a good move on 62 minutes.
More cards for Bishop players followed.
67 minutes and a ball from the right wing found Salvin who was pushed to the floor from behind with the goal at his mercy. A certain penalty.
The whistle blew and all the players prepared for an equalising spot kick. However, in what looked like a deliberate attempt to provoke a reaction from the Bishops captain, the referee awarded a free kick despite the fact that Salvin was lying on the ground.
More cards for Bishop players followed. Although I couldn’t keep up with noting all of these down, I can tell you that by the 70th minute six Bishops players had been shown a yellow card. The chances of a red card were now more than 50/50.
Darren Richardson replaced Craig Toman on 73 minutes, reducing the odds of a red card slightly.
The inevitable happened with 15 minutes to go. Wearmouth who had already been booked for an unbelievably innocuous offence was the unlucky victim. Having retrieved the ball for a throw in just over the half way line Wearmouth tried to take a quick throw but was hacked over by Synthonia captain despite being off the pitch at the time.
Salvin interjected but Wearmouth foolishly flipped the ball up hitting the Synthonia defender’s shoulder and head, but with no force. Harbron then clutched his face and gave an Oscar winning performance which earned the praise of the man in black, and a red card for the Bishops teenager. The real offender went unpunished.
To add to this generally offensive spectacle, the captain then recovered instantly to receive the adulatory hair ruffles from his jubilant team-mates. What a proud moment for the home side.
Bishops gave Synthonia a good run for their money in the final 15, and remarkably four players managed to keep out of the referee’s notebook.
A further series of decisions went against Bishops to the general incredulity of the Bishops team and supporters.
Atkinson almost grabbed an equaliser five minutes into
injury time when his shot was deflected wide for a corner. Peter Jeffries came up for this later corner,
but there was to be no happy ending for Bishops.
A dismal evening
all round when sport really was the loser.
It is worth noting that impartiality does not require that individuals be treated
equally under all circumstances. Teams should
be treated differently if they merit
different treatment according to external and objective morality. How true.