10 MEN PREVAIL

Pre-season friendlies are all well and good, but there’s nothing like a competitive game to sharpen up a team.

And the common consensus was that Bishop Auckland’s league game on Saturday might well have made all the difference in this match.  Fresh from their 5-0 opening day victory, they secured another three points despite being down to 10 men for more than half of this game.

For their part, North Shields were left kicking their heels on Saturday – without an opponent after Team Northumbria’s withdrawal from the league.  It took them 20 minutes to settle into the match and for the remaining 70 minutes the quality of their football ebbed and flowed – at times playing well, at other times looking rusty both individually and as a team.

Bishop Auckland’s bright start was rewarded in the 12^th minute when they took the lead despite a terrific save by Shields keeper Greg Purvis and a follow-up shot being cleared off the line.  The half clearance only got as far as Kyle Patton who scored at Bishops’ third attempt.

Shields almost pegged them back three minutes later when Ryan Carr met a Jordan Summerly cross with a header that went just over the bar.  They combined again in the 23^rd minute, this time with more success.  Bishops keeper Nick Liversedge couldn’t hold onto another Summerly cross and the ball fell to Carr who slotted it in.

The teams exchanged shots before Bishop Auckland were down to 10 men.

Captain Lewis Gibbons had been booked minutes earlier and then in the 35rd minute he committed another foul.  Referee Martin Conroy didn’t have too much trouble deciding that it was worth another yellow card and he was given his marching orders.

Surprisingly it didn’t seem to have too much of an effect on the game.  Shields couldn’t seem to exploit their man advantage and Bishop Auckland remained well organised and only committed up to three men when attacking.

The second half was only two minutes old when the ball was floated into the North Shields box and Darren Richardson met it with a quality header, placing the ball over and round Purvis.

Back in the lead, Bishop Auckland held their own with 10 men for the rest of the match.

Shields had a few more chances, including shots by Craig Spooner and Drew Eastlake.

Their best opportunity to equalise fell to Cam Cunningham.  He got on the end of a ball floated over the Bishop Auckland defence to the far post by Summerly, but the Shields No. 14 couldn’t keep his shot down when only a couple of yards from the goal.

Bishops almost finished the game in dramatic style.  Forty yards out, Chris Winn spotted Purvis off his line and the striker tried to lob him.  The North Shields managed to scramble back and turn it out for a corner.  They’d come within a whisker of making it 1-3.

North Shields 1 Bishop Auckland 2 – Ebac Northern League Division One

• Among the interested on-lookers at the game were Morpeth Town manager Nick Gray, a contingent from Consett on a scouting mission before their FA Cup tie against Shields on Saturday, and Jarrow Roofing’s Richie and Jan McLoughlin – enjoying the football instead of having to endure the stress of matchday.

Mike Snowdon