TWO POINTS LOST, ONE POINT GAINED?

Billingham Town 1 Redcar Town 1 – Ebac Northern League Division Two:

I’m pretty sure that Billingham Town will be kicking themselves – unable to convert their possession and attacks into three points.  And that was after they got off to a perfect start:  1-0 up after just six minutes.

An attempted clearance by Redcar No. 3 Gary Readman was charged down by Leighton Harris, with the ricochet dropping right in front of Billy Town No. 9 Jack Pounder who had the simple task of placing it past Michael Algie in the visitors’ goal.

Four minutes later it was Pounder’s turn to charge down a clearance but there was no-one on hand to get on the end of his cross.  Crosses by Billy Town were the feature of the first half, with the ball regularly peppered across the Redcar area, with many failing to find a man.  One that did, came to Pounder off a defender, but the striker put the ball over the bar.

While Billingham had the better start, Redcar Town looked sluggish and it took until the 20th minute for them to craft a chance, a chance that came close to them drawing level:  The ball was sent in from the left and No. 9 Carl Williams connected with a scissors kick only for the ball to be cleared off the line.

That heralded the best phase of play of the game, with the sides trading chances.

For the home team, a cross into the goalmouth by Robbie Bird that the Redcar defence and keeper managed to clear despite the close attention of two Billingham attackers.  A cross by Kyle Davis just out of the reach of Pounder.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Redcar Town should have drawn level in the 32nd minute, Williams threading the ball past the Billy Town back line, allowing Sam Webster a run at goal, but the No. 10 could knock the ball past keeper James Winter who had closed down the shooting angles.

The visitors only had to wait three minutes for the equaliser, Matthew Crust meeting a corner with a powerful half volley.  The goal was quickly followed by a flurry of chances at either end before the break:  a Pounder shot easily taken by Algie, a Webster shot hit wide and then finally a Pounder shot at Algie.

Unfortunately, the second half wasn’t quite as incident-packed, despite Billingham Town again getting off to the stronger start and Redcar Town looking lethargic, unable to get much going for the first 20 minutes of the half.

Despite Billy Town having the upper hand, they failed to create many clear cut chances and with 15 minutes to go it was Redcar Town who came closest to finding a winner – Nico Wetherall getting within a whisker of connecting with a Webster cross to the near post, close to the Billingham goal.

And with a couple of half chances for each side, the game finished all square.

Mike Snowdon