FIRST HALF ALL SQUARE…SECOND HALF A DIFFERENT STORY
Ryhope CW 2 Newcastle Benfield 3 – Ebac Northern League Division One.
Sometimes and somehow, half-time breaks can change the course of a game; and so it proved at the Ryhope Recreation Ground yesterday.
There was plenty of controversy thrown in too. Boring it certainly wasn’t.
The two teams went into the game nestled next to each other in the table, which suggested that they’d be pretty evenly matched. The first half certainly made the case for that assessment.
They traded chances, shots, goals and top saves by the keepers, going in all square at 1-1. But two very different teams came out in the second half. Benfield stepped up their game by a couple of gears, while Ryhope never got going.
The match got off to a flying start with Ryhope keeper Jonny Ball called into action in the opening minute when he pulled off a good save following a quick one-two between Dean Holmes and Paul Brayson, with Holmes getting the shot. Benfield made the early running, with Dennis Knight threading the ball between Ryhope defenders. Brayson ran on to the pass before chipping the ball over they keeper but just over the bar too.
Michael Rae had a brace of chances in the opening 15 minutes for Ryhope, trying to bend a shot round Andrew Grainger in the Benfield goal and a shot from outside the box, with both just missing the target.
Ryhope took the lead with Matty Weirs and James Ellis combining each with a couple of back heels that wrong-footed the Benfield allowing Ellis to guide the ball into the net.
Within three minutes Grainger produced three quality saves, the first the pick of the crop. Weirs hit a rasping shot from more than 25 yards out, with the Benfield No. 1 at full stretch diving to his left to push it out for a corner. That was quickly followed with saves of Chris Trewick and Jack Walker shots.
Benfield made it 1-1, at the third time of asking. Dale Pearson had a shot blocked by Trewick who got in the way of a follow-up shot by Brayson, only for Jake Orrell to pick up the loose ball and find the net just inside the left post. In the last seven minutes of the half Brayson had one shot saved by Ball, put another effort just wide, while at the other end Nicky Kane couldn’t find the target with a header from a corner.
45 minutes with plenty of chances and either team could have had a few more goals. It was a very different tale in the second 45.
Twice within the opening 15 minutes of the half Ryhope cleared Benfield chances off the line – the first Elliot Woods intercepting a Brayson shot, the second, Walker scrambling the ball away after Holmes shot back across the defence and keeper.
In the 61st minute Benfield took the lead for the first time and didn’t look as though they’d let it slip for the rest of the game. Brayson was bundled over by Woods in the box, with Knight hitting the spot kick high and right. They probably should have had a second penalty three minutes later. Brayson (again) with a shot that hit the underside of the bar. The ball spun out and Holmes was first to it, only to be up ended by Lay who was lucky not to concede a spot kick.
And for the third time Ryhope had to clear the ball off the line, this time Riding coming the rescue after a Knight shot.
The game was put out of Ryhope’s reach in the 82nd minute when the referee played a good advantage after Holmes was brought down in midfield just as he passed the ball to Brayson. Danni Lay challenged the Benfield No. 9 in the box. His tackle got as much of the man as the ball – enough for the referee to award the second penalty of the match which was again despatched by Knight, this time hitting it to his left.
In the 92nd minute Ryhope pulled a goal back. Centre back Lay it a low, hard drive that Grainger could only push out to the side of the box, right into the path of sub Gary Shaw who scored before the keeper could get back on his feet, but it came too late for Ryhope to mount a comeback.
(The main photo is of the immaculately observed two-minutes’ silence at the game for Remembrance Sunday)
Mike Snowdon