January 10th 2024
EBAC Northern League Division One
North Shields 0-4 Heaton Stannington
‘Robins resilient in defeat’
A new look Robins side under the guidance of Brian Smith, took to the field in what is the start of a new chapter for the football club.
A magnificent turn out from supporters saw 537 watch on from the sidelines to see how the action would unfold on what was a cold winter’s night.
The visitors, the faster of the two sides out of the block, applied early pressure to the Robins goal taking an early lead through former Robin’ Ryan Carr.
Yet to have a real foothold in the game, the visitor’s had their second of the afternoon, when possession lost on halfway, setup Leighton Hopper who carved a path towards goal before slotting home to double their lead with under a quarter of an hour played.
In the build up to the second goal, Alex Nicholson was forced off through injury, replaced by younger James Sloan.
Two goals down was no deterrent for the Robins to go down without a fight, youngsters Kwak and Pritchard looked to impress on their debuts along with the experience of Holmes and Mason looking to link up to create an opening, unfortunately the ball just didn’t want to fall our way.
The visitors extended their lead through Daniel Stephenson with a clinical finish.
Once again despite the deficit, the lads continued to work hard on creating openings, only to come up against a very stubborn Heaton Stannington defensive line. Luke Salmon carved out the first real goal scoring opportunity, a snapshot from just inside the area, dragged the wrong side of the post on the verge of half time.
A much improved start to the second half, Pritchard heavily involved in the opening exchanges, seeing a cross blocked, from the other side Salmon saw his cross deflected into the keeper’s grasp.
A freekick presented the Robins a chance to get back into the game, the resulting cross into the box just too deep.
Pritchard again involved finding himself space on the left hand side, cutting inside before unleashing an effort on goal, well dealt with by Stans’ Brass. Moments later winning a corner to create another chance for the Robins.
With just over 20 minutes left the visitor’s made the game safe, with their fourth goal of the evening, Dan Sayer on hand to find the bottom corner after the ball found him from a freekick.
With around 20 minutes left on the clock, Callum Dobson was on hand with a terrific one on one save, to keep out what looked like a certain fifth for the visitor’s.
Credit where credit is due, the visitor’s were well worth their win, limiting the Robins to very few chances over the 90 minutes. But said that, there were glimpses of what is to come with the quality of players Brian has been able to secure in such a short space of time.
We go again on Friday night, when we welcome Newcastle Benfield to the Daren Persson Stadium.
Once again a massive shoutout to the 537 who were in attendance and didn’t cheering on the lads, despite the result not going our way and clapping the lads off at full time, it is very much appreciated and we hope you can all join us again on Friday night as we go again.
North Shields: Dobson, Donnison, Salmon, Nicholson, Coppen, Donnelly, Ormston, Kwak, Mason, Pritchard, Holmes
Attendance: 537
Next Game: Newcastle Benfield, Friday 12th January 2024, 7.30pm
