Whitley Bay and Tynemouth M2s 1-1 Durham City M1s

Should we feel relieved or robbed at this result? A case could be made for either. Playing on an absolutely rascal pitch in weather befitting the British seaside, we battled hard against a decent Whitley Bay side who are on a good run of form.

Right away, the game ebbed and flowed. We dominated the early minutes. Increased patience round the back saw attacks gradually build, with strings of passes working the ball up the pitch. We played some of our best hockey this season, but a goal wouldn’t come. Adam Yang played some particularly penetrating passes when we had the ball early on. The touches from the forward line were not quite there and our short-corners, though improving, still couldn’t cross the goal-line. Anth nearly put us ahead but was swarmed when it appeared from the other end that he was against an open goal. Then, Whitley Bay regrouped and had some scary strafes forward, but were denied by some decent saves and good tackles. Soon enough, we were back on top. We win a succession of short-corners. The ball goes to Steve Kettley in one of our mysterious new routines. He scores! 0-1! It wasn’t long till half-time. We gritted our teeth and ground out the rest of the half. Knowing we could do better, despite being on top, we resolved to do better in the next thirty-five minutes.

Yet as the story has been all to often this season, we had a significantly worse second-half. Most of it was spent defending. Eventually, Whitley Bay equalised after their short-corner went low and to the right, wrong-footing Matt Coe. 1-1. Timmy Hassle stopped us falling behind by preventing the ball from going in an otherwise open goal – Coe had gone to smother the ball on the left, missed the attacker, and folded Adam instead. A reprieve to be sure, but we did nothing to put ourselves ahead and were missing our usual clinical finishing. We managed to hold on for the rest of the game, gaining a point for the third week in a row. Still, for the third week in a row, perhaps we could’ve done better. Regardless, things are rapidly coming together. When they do – and it won’t be long – the league will be in for a new powerhouse.

MOM: Matt Coe (‘Good saves’)

DOD: Shez (Late to warm-up; being and going rogue; and putting all that pre-workout energy into chasing a ball that even Usain Bolt wouldn’t catch)

#MindYourHeadTank #ILoveBadPitches #SuspiciouslyMintyShowers