Newton Aycliffe Sports Club travelled to Darlington to play high flying Spraire Lads in this PMA Division 2 encounter. With only one defeat this season The Sports Club knew this would be a tough game to get the points to stay amongst the promotion race.
The first 15 minutes was completely dominated by the home side, particularly in midfield but keeper Chris Palmer had little to do as he watched the home side’s efforts either go wide or fly over the bar.
It was on 32 minutes when the deadlock was broken with the home side breaking through the midfield, and as players backed off, a hopeful long shot found its way past Chris Palmer to make it 1-0.
Aycliffe woke up a little after this but the closest effort came from Chris Jones who fired over the bar. A number of corners from the Sports Club failed to cause too many problems at this stage and were then caught with long ball over the top and the Spraire lads made it 2-0 on 36 minutes
NASCFC then grabbed a goal back, with Anthony Campbell firing home his 3rd goal in 2 games to make it 2-1 just before the break.
A quick formation change at half time saw Aycliffe revert to a 3 man central midfield. This change worked well with Aycliffe seeing more of the ball in key areas and a lot of pressure was put on for the equaliser. However, with 20 minutes to go, some sloppy defending saw another effort from outside of the box creep past Chris Palmer and into the far corner of the goal to make it 3-1 and effectively finishing the game.