Bedlington Terriers (Home): Northern League Division 1: Tuesday 20th Sept 2011

Result: Marske United 2 Bedlington Terriers 2     Scorers: McGill, Brunskill

After another defeat away to Norton and Stockton Ancients on Saturday, manager Paul Burton made 2 changes with Mark Taylor replacing the unavailable Adam Wheatley in defence and Chris McGill returned to the starting line up with Karl Charlton dropping to the bench. Bedlington had top goal scorer Anthony Shandran unavailable but could still name a strong enough side to afford to leave Steve Richardson, Tommy English and Steve Bowey on the bench. Terriers also boasted 3 ex-Darlington players in their squad in Mark Convery, Stuart Elliott and John Brackstone.

Marske started on the front foot and forced two corners in the first three minutes with the second leading to a shot from Steve Cochrane which was blocked by the Bedlington defence.  The first chance of the game came on the quarter hour mark when Anth Ormerod advanced forward but his shot from 20 yards went just wide.

Two minutes later, Bedlington had their first opportunity when Craig Hubbard played in Dean Douglas but his shot went well wide of Jonathan McDonald’s goal.  Shortly afterwards Terriers had another opportunity when Derek Bradley’s pass left Dom Gamble flat footed and Ian Graham pounced but his shot was straight at McDonald.

Marske took the lead just after the half hour when a free kick from Cochrane was swung into the box and Chris McGill scored from around 10 yards with a superb flicked header over keeper Kevin Morton.

The only remaining chance of the half fell to Danny Brunskill who hit a fierce free kick from the corner of the box which was well held by Morton.

Half-time: Marske United 1 v 0 Bedlington Terriers

Marske started the second half well and could have doubled their lead on 49 minutes when a magnificent effort from McGill from 30 yards was tipped over the bar by Morton.

Soon after this Bedlington had their best spell of the game.  First, Stuart Elliott’s shot went over from the edge of the box, which was followed by a rush of blood from McDonald who came rushing out of his box and just managed to get to the ball before the Bedlington player. There were appeals for handball against McDonald but the referee waved away their protests.  Steven Stewart then headed straight at McDonald before play switched to the other end.  From a free kick on the halfway line, McGill and Morton went up for the ball which was spilled by Morton only for McGill’s instinctive effort to be cleared off the line by James Novak.

Bedlington equalised after 63 minutes and there was more than a hint of controversy about it.  A ball in from the right hit McGill in the side, but referee Rogers adjudged it to be handball and awarded a penalty.  There was also some doubt as to whether it was in the box.  Andy Raw, Cochrane and McGill were all booked for their protests, but Convery kept his calm to score to McDonald’s left.

The game was then broken up by a raft of substitutions with Cochrane leaving the field early injured to be replaced by Adam Gell which was closely followed by Glenn Wesson being replaced by Jonathan Burton.  Elliott and Graham were substituted for Bedlington to be replaced by Steve Richardson and Paul Swithenbank respectively.

Just as it looked like the game was going to fizzle out there was real drama.  First Richardson cut infield and sent a magnificent curling shot goalwards only to see it hit the post, then hit McDonald’s back and go out for a corner.  From the resulting corner Richard Flynn rose the highest to score unchallenged from inside the six yard box. 

With only two minutes to go it looked like Marske were going to suffer another defeat. However, just as the game was entering injury time, a throw in from Roberts was flicked on by Bradley for Brunskill to hook the ball home from close range.

Even then the drama wasn’t over!  In the second minute of injury time a Bedlington corner was cleared to Brunskill who did superbly to hold the ball up and play in Gell who in turn played an excellent through ball to McGill.  McGill played the ball past the onrushing keeper and steadied himself for what was surely going to be the winning goal.  However, the striker was too calm and delayed too long, allowing two defenders to get between him and the goal resulting in his shot being blocked by one of the defenders.

With the last move of the game, Gell lost the ball in midfield and Swithenbank broke for Bedlington.  As he advanced into the box, Raw came back and made a superb tackle meaning the points were shared.

Full-time: Marske United 2 v 2 Bedlington Terriers

United avoided equalling an unwanted club record of eight straight defeats by putting in a much improved performance to draw against the big-spending Bedlington Terriers team.

Marske now need to produce this type of performance on a much regular basis is they are to move further away from the dreaded relegation zone back to division two.

Teams:

Marske United: McDonald, Raw, Gamble, Ormerod, Roberts, Taylor, Wesson (J.Burton), Cochrane (Gell), McGill, Brunskill, Bradley. 

Not Used:  Charlton, Seaton, Donachie

Bedlington Terriers: K.Morton, C.Morton, Novak, Flynn, Snowden, Elliott (Richardson), Douglas, Hubbard, Graham (Swithenbank), Convery, Stewart.  Not Used:  Bowey, English, Brackstone