Durham City M1s 1-1 Marton Furness M1s

To describe our Saturday in a word: choking. Both on the pitch and off the pitch, we choked – well, only one of us choked off the pitch. It was a dangerous chilli. Against Marton Furness, we gave a fantastic performance in the first half that did not carry into the second due to a complete breakdown in discipline.

Most MOTM votes came from first half performances. Ben Baker, Matt Coe, and Paul Karamath all played well. The problem was scoring goals. We rushed our shots, but still some chances came agonisingly close. Steve Kettley and Toby Fisher had chances that flashed wide. After a series of short-corners, we were awarded a penalty after a drag flick was stopped by on the line by a Marton body. Ben stepped up and slotted it home. 1-0. Marton had a few chances, but were nothing special. The best things that they had going for them were their experience and a bloke who loved an aerial. Yet we ground out the rest of the half. A stern team talk ensued – we knew we were better than them. Once again, we just had to show it with a win.

Once again, we failed. Our heads went and the team structure followed. As a result, our passes were stray, we couldn’t stop a ball, and our tackles were messy. In fairness, Marton were not innocent when it came to challenges either, but, somehow, both teams only received a couple of cards. Regardless of discipline, our lack of it led to Marton winning a series of short-corners, as well as chances from open play. Their goal finally came when a Marton player launched an aerial into an unmarked teammate in the ’D.’ Coe rushed out to challenge, but the attacker unleashed a first time lob. 1-1. After that, our discipline disappeared. We had no structure. Somehow, we ground out the rest of the half.

In a weird way, both we and Marton will feel both frustrated and fortunate to have come away with only one point. To use a hackneyed footballing cliché, it really was a game of two halves. Next week sees us… having a week off. Hopefully we’ll each have a strong word with ourselves.

MoM: Matt Coe (for being agile)

DoD: Adam Yang (to quote someone after the game ‘did he have a hole in his stick’)