BIRTLEY RAMPANT
Birtley Town 6 Sunderland West End 0 – Ebac Northern League Division Two:
The Birtley goal machine keeps rolling on…at full pelt, led by their own individual goal machine: Aidan Rutledge.
Fresh from a midweek 9-0 win (with their No. 9 scoring six), they thumped six past West End, with Rutledge getting a mere two goals. They’re hitting top form just at the right time, with automatic promotion and play-offs only a couple of weeks away.
It took him less than two minutes to get going, seconds after their first attack when Rutledge passed the ball to Callum Smith, he chipped it back to Glen Hargrave whose strike produced a fine, reflex save by West End keeper Neal Bussey. Within seconds they were 1-0 up: Rutledge with a turn and shot that Bussey managed to get a hand to but was unable to keep it out of the net.
After a blistering start by Birtley, West End just about managed to hold their own despite several attacks by the home team: Another Hargrave shot stopped by Bussey, a Lewis Orrell strike taken at the second time of asking by the keeper and a Smith shot deflected for a corner.
Half an hour in, West End started to work their way into the game, while Birtley seemed to run out of attacking ideas. West End started to win some 50-50 balls and Daley Clarke had a header that went wide of the post.
Birtley picked their game up in the last couple of minutes of the half. Bussey pulled off another good save as Smith tried to bend the ball past him, with the keeper getting his fingertips to the ball to send it out for a corner. From the corner, Birtley skipper Alex Francis got a glancing header to the ball to send it into the top right hand corner of the net despite a defender getting a touch on the ball. 2-0.
They started the second half in similar mood. In the opening minute, Hargrave saw a flying header bounce off the bar. Then, in the 52nd minute, it was Rutledge with the assist, setting Tom McIntyre up. The No. 11 duly buried it into the goal.
After the third goal, West End managed to re-group but it was only delaying the inevitable. Once they conceded the fourth, their get up and go, got up and went. Birtley won a corner that was hit to the far post, Francis headed it back across the goal and Rutledge was on hand to drill it in. That was quickly followed by a fifth. A free kick was launched into the West End area by Smith, met with a diving header by Francis for his second of the match.
The scoring was wrapped up when Liam Wotherspoon prodded a ball by Andrew Clarkson home from a couple of feet away.
Birtley came close to adding more: Bussey pushed a Clarkson header out for a corner, Francis saw a volley bounce off the bar, the keeper managed to get a foot to a shot while lying on the ground, with Birtley unable to push the ball over the line in the ensuing scramble, and then Birtley sub Matthew Ward had their last chance, but his shot was kicked away close to the line by Daniel Martin.
Rutledge’s brace takes his season tally to 55 league goals – a remarkable haul, with a couple of games still to go.
Mike Snowdon
