North Shields have been knocked out of the FA Vase after suffering a 2-1 defeat on the road against Coventry United.
Despite creating a multitude of key chances to score, the Robins found themselves 2-0 down with 11 minutes to go, before Ben Sampson grabbed a late consolation deep into stoppage time.
Both teams took a short while to get going, with a lot of the action taking place in the middle of the park. After 11 minutes the Robins tested United’s back-line for the first time when Ben Sampson worked the ball to Jordan Lashley on the wing, his cross was then blocked by Shay Palmer and turned behind for a corner.
United should’ve taken the lead when Cameron Dunn lobbed a through ball to Dan Fraser on the by-line, before the left back picked out Ryan Harkin just yards from goal, but his header bounced past the post and behind.
A glaring miss for the home side, but it was North Shields who were left to rue the clearer opportunities. In a two minute period, Sampson would head over the bar, before Lashley picked out Stephen Hall running toward the front post, however he also skied his effort over.
Almost immediately after and with half an hour gone they were behind. Callum Ross missed his attempt to clear a ball played over the top, leading to Charlie Faulkner, who was hot on his heels, to slip past the midfielder and finish past Elliott.
They could’ve doubled their lead a few minutes from the break when the Robins attempted an aerial clearance, which fell directly to Harkin on the volley, but it went wide.
HALF-TIME Coventry United 1-0 North Shields
The Robins slightly changed their shape in the second half after Slater was swapped with Euan Anderson, which greatly improved their performance as they dominated for large spells.
To summarise the plethora of chances created, Adams was denied by a double save as his shot and following header was thwarted by Dan Moore in goal, Hall headed the ball inches wide after an in-swinging cross, and a ball into the middle by Ben Sampson found substitute Lee Mason from close range , who mis-timed his header, firing over the bar.
With twenty minutes to go in an attempt to shift the momentum in their favour, the Red and Greens switched out Harkin for Nehemia Zazi. Nine minutes later and the striker had scored with a powerful first timed effort into the top right corner, effectively putting the game beyond the Robins, who didn’t quite look the same afterwards.
However, when the eight minutes of added time was announced, the Robins found a new surge of belief and threw everything forward. Ben Sampson would pull one back in the 99th minute, but this turned out to be the last kick of the game as the whistle was blown immediately after the restart.
FULL-TIME: Coventry United 2-1 North Shields
North Shields: Elliott, Suddick, Adams, Ross (Holmes, 89’) , Harmison, Sampson, Lashley (Paterson 76’) Forster, Hall (Ogbewe, 64’) Wanless (Mason, 55’) Slater (Anderson, 46’)
