For the second Saturday in a row Aycliffe surrendered a lead to lose 2-1 to a Cumbrian team. Following last week’s loss at Penrith, Valentine’s Day saw us give Celtic Nation a present of their first away win of the season.
The game was preceded by a perfectly observed minute’s silence for Aycliffe fan Brian Starforth who passed away recently. Once underway both teams struggled to make an impression on a heavy pitch. The crowd had to wait patiently for action but the game suddenly came to life five minutes before half-time.
Dennis Knight opened the scoring by beating the offside trap & lofted the ball over the keeper into the net. A minute later Stuart Banks came close to adding a second seeing his shot blocked. In the dying moments of the half Aycliffe had another chance when the Celtic Nation keeper had to race out of his box to beat Knight to the ball. The clearance fell to Banks whose shot was cleared by a covering defender.
As the second half got underway there were more chances for Aycliffe. On 53 mins Zak Boagey fought off challenges in midfield & took a long range shot which flew just over the bar. Ten minutes later Jordan Laidler made his way through the defence but shot wide.
From that point it all went wrong for Aycliffe. Celtic Nation’s equaliser came on 67 mins with Dean Crozier scoring after good work from centr-forward Simon Tucker. Ten minutes later Celtic Nation grabbed the winner with Aaran Roberts capitalising on confusion in the Aycliffe defence. To make matters worse Aycliffe centre-half Mark Stephenson was shown red for an altercation in the aftermath of the goal.
Aycliffe piled forward in the closing moments with even keeper James Winter moving into the opponents box for a corner. The equaliser, however, did not come leaving Aycliffe 19th in the Ebac Northern League Division One table. They had an early chance to make amends with a home game against second bottom Sunderland RCA on Tuesday 17th February.
Forthcoming Fixtures
Saturday 21 February (away) Whitley Bay (3pm)
Saturday 28 February (home) Billingham Synthonia (3pm)
Saturday 7 March (home) Durham City (3pm)
