I am not normally in the habit for making excuses but we did have 10 players missing for the match today for a combination of reasons and this was a major factor which was felt most acutely in the closing stages of this match.
The first 25 minutes of this game was an even contest with both teams having good periods of possession with the odd set piece and Sacriston showed some very neat approach play without making the Newton Aycliffe goalkeeper work.
The Newton Aycliffe number 11 Wing was causing Sacriston lots of problems with his ball control and movement and along with the number 7 Owens I think his name was kept the ball moving quickly and moved our defence around but didn’t really threaten Potts in the Segga goal.
The last 10 minutes of the first half saw Newton Aycliffe turn up the pressure and they started to create some good chances and by now Sacriston were struggling to get out of their own half. Right on the stroke of half time following a corner the ball bounced around at the back post and a shot was fired in from 10 yards which was well kept out by Potts in the Segga goal. Michael Quinn then immediately afterwards cleared brilliantly off the line from a close range shot.
Sacriston saw the game through to half time with the score line still 0-0. The early part of the 2nd half saw no change in momentum as Newton Aycliffe stayed on the offensive and Sacriston were forced into conceding corner after and corner but were defending very determinedly up to this point. One of the main problems was that we couldn’t keep possession of the ball for longer than 10 seconds at a time and our defenders were faced with the ball just coming straight back at them. Then on 55 minutes Newton Aycliffe’s pressure finally told when Potts in the Segga goal came out and punched a corner clear out towards the edge of the box but Wing took control of the loose ball before firing an unstoppable shot into the top corner from around 20 yards out.
Then Sacriston had their best period of the game for the next 10 minutes in which we pressed much further up the field and started taking the game to Aycliffe. During this time we forced several corners and free kicks and created a couple of decent chances. A couple of these fell to our one and only sub Greg Coates who came on for James Thornton who had run himself into the ground. Coates did have a very brief positive impact on our forward line which lasted around 10 minutes but we didn’t score in this period and this was the last passage of play where remotely threatened the Newton Aycliffe goal.
Then just as we were starting to get a way back into the game a terrible refereeing decision for a hand ball against our captain O’Brien in the box who had blocked an attempted cross clearly with his stomach resulted in a penalty. Aycliffe had appealed vehemently for penalties all game that was nowhere near and unfortunately for us this time he gave the decision. The Aycliffe player put the penalty away easily on 71 minutes to make it 2-0.
The last 20 minutes of the game were amongst the worst I have had to witness as manager of this team as we completely lost our defensive shape and stopped working as hard to close the space down and Newton Aycliffe ran riot. Our passing was just awful and for the first time this season we capitulated and if it wasn’t for Potts making a few good saves the score line could have been worse than the final 5-0 one that it ended up being.
Newton Aycliffe made it 3-0 when a cross came into our box from the right and Collinson in an effort to clear the ball out of the box spectacularly caught the ball flush on the half volley and into the top corner of his own net.
Newton Aycliffe added 2 more goals within a minute of each other with 7 minutes to go. A beleaguered Potts made good initial saves from the shots but the help in both instances was not there in numbers from the Sacriston defence to help clear the rebounds which were hammered in to make it 4-0 & then 5-0.
Newton Aycliffe missed other chances when well placed and by now were rampant in coming forward with all their players looking to join in on the score sheet. This was tough to take for some of our players who had put in a good effort for most of the game.
One thing I will mention was the attitude of some of the Newton Aycliffe players on the pitch in the closing stages of the game who chose to taunt us as the goals went in and rubbing a opposition’s nose’s in it has never been my style and I was far from happy but we will use that as motivation for when they come to Sacriston on the 20th April.
This does not take away the fact that on the day Newton Aycliffe played extremely well and thoroughly deserved there victory.
We now have to show some real character to bounce back from this starting on Thursday at home to Pelton RAOB to try and get the points we need to avoid relegation.
