Forthcoming Fixtures
Saturday 31 January – Sunderland RCA (home) 3:00pm
Saturday 7 February – Penrith (away) 3:00pm
Saturday 14 February – Celtic Nation (home) 3:00pm
Newton Aycliffe played two games against Marske last week, winning one and losing the other. The highlight was the home win on Tuesday night which saw Aycliffe progress to the quarter-finals of the Northern League Cup where they’ll meet either Team Northumbria or Washington.
Aycliffe started the Cup game well finding the net after just 10 mins. Threading his way through the defence Zak Boagey fired past Marske keeper Robert Dean. Within a minute it might have been two had Dean not been able to tip over a 30 yard free kick from Liam Henderson.
As half-time approached Marske applied pressure on the Aycliffe goal and in the 45th minute the resistance crumbled as Reece Kelly advanced on goal. The challenge on him might have led to a penalty but the referee allowed play to continue & Austin Johnston put away the equaliser.
As the second half began Aycliffe looked to retake the lead. On 51 mins Jack Gibson had a good shot from long range saved by a flying Dean, who again rescued his side with another stop from the corner that followed.
Boagey scored from the penalty spot after 68 mins. 17-year-old Man of the Match Jack Gibson made a good run into the box before being bundled over. The referee pointed to the spot and Boagey did the rest.
Marske applied themselves to seek another equaliser but the tie was put beyond their reach after 87 mins when Gibson played a perfect ball through to Liam Henderson who only had the keeper to beat. The same two players combined just a minute later to score Henderson’s second and Aycliffe’s fourth.
Not surprisingly Marske were determined to exact revenge when the two sides met again a few days later in a league match. Aycliffe began this game in much the same positive fashion that they finished the cup match. As in that game they had the ball in the net in the first ten minutes.
This time, however, the goal was ruled out for offside. A couple of minutes later a 20 yard shot from Paul Garthwaite had the Marske keeper leaping to his left making an excellent save.
Marske responded to the early pressure well and the first goal came after 28 mins. A free kick by Craig Gott from just outside the box took a heavy deflection and found its way past James Winter and into the Aycliffe net. Three goals in the second half gave Marske the points to put them five points behind leaders West Auckland with three games in hand.
Aycliffe’s next three games are against teams in the lower half of the table. They’ll be looking to return to the form which has seen them score 14 goals and take 9 points so far in 2015.
Next up at Moore Lane Park is Sunderland RCA on Saturday 31 January @ 3:00pm. We’d love to have your support to cheer our town’s team on. Admission is £6 adults, £4 concessions & free for accompanied under 12’s.
