Saturday 15th April 2023
Northern Premier League – East Division
Cleethorpes Town 1-1 North Shields
‘Robins salvage a late point from Owls’.
As the sun shone down and the magnificent traveling Robins support in full voice, the match official got the game underway.
An early opportunity presented itself for the Robins, as Cunningham broke down the left but was unable to pick out a Robins head in the middle.
GOAL 8’ Cleethorpes Town – Edwin Essel, 1-0
The ball given away cheaply in midfield, a through ball to the Grimsby Town loanee, split the Robins defence allowing Essel in on goal, before calmly slotting home beyond Steavens.
An almost instant reply from the Robins, Larmouth breaking through the Owls defence before delivering a dangerous ball across the six yard box but no team-mates were available inside the area.
The Robins pressing for an equalizer had shouts for handball waved away, where it appeared the ball struck the hand of the Cleethorpes defenders as they looked to clear their lines.
Callum Larmouth had two chances in a matter of minutes, firstly dragging an effort just wide before a mixup amongst the Owl’s defence allowed Larmouth the chance to bring down a tricky high ball only for his effort to be parried away by the outrushing James McKeown.
Cleethorpes had chances of their own, dragging an effort wide of the target before Stephen Forster had to react well to clear the ball off the line from a headed effort from a Cleethorpes corner.
The half grew on and the Robins fought on playing to the whistle, Dan Wilson up front, broke into the Owls box shaking off his marker, before delivering a dangerous ball into the box, just too high for Van Zandvliet arriving at the back post.
Half time arrived with the hosts lead intact, a fairly open game, the Robins frustrated with a lack of decisions going their way, despite a number of visible fouls. The hosts looking to play through goalscorer Essel. The traveling Robins support confident of coming away from the game with something.
The second half started, with a half time change for the Robins as Liam Doyle replaced Van Zandvliet.
The hosts almost doubled their advantage early after the restart, an attack on the Robins goal, resulted in a volleyed effort crashing off the crossbar, to the relief of the Robins.
At the other end, Wilson battled well down the right, beat his man before hanging up a ball at the back post, Cunningham unable to find a way past McKeown.
Wilson then set up Larmouth, who forced McKeown into making a save to keep the Robins out.
Dan Turner replaced David Robinson with 25 minutes left on the clock.
The game became somewhat scrappy, the Robins unable to keep hold of the ball, loose passes allowing Cleethorpes to look the most likely to score and double their advantage.
Cleethorpes missed a number of chances to extend their lead, firing wide of and other Steavens goal, where more quality would have punished the Robins, who could have found themselves 2 or 3 goals down.
With a quarter of an hour left, the Robins made their final change of the afternoon, when Rio Joisce replaced Callum Larmouth in a bid to rescue something from the game.
The hosts had more chances to finish the contest but wasted chances letting the Robins off with just minutes left remaining on the clock.
Despite the pressure, the Robins continued to fight and look for a way back into the game, David Palmer and Liam Doyle battling in midfield to try and carve out a chance.
Palmer, battling for the ball in midfield, appeared to be elbowed in the back of the head, before an Owls’ centre-half body checked him off the ball, nothing given for either incident.
GOAL 88’ North Shields – Cam Cunningham, 1-1
The never say die attitude that has been shown throughout the season by Marc Nash’s men, paid off once more, time running out when our very own England School Boy Rio Joisce, danced his way past two Owls’ defenders before cutting the ball back to Cam Cunningham to fire home from 6 yards and draw the Robins level.
A hard fought point on the road for the Robins, who at times were not at their best but battled on throughout the 90 minutes. The hosts’ probably disappointed they didn’t add to their early lead and put the game to bed. All in all, a hard fought contest between two good sides with great support from both sets of supporters.
A special shout out to the traveling Robins, who made the 300+ plus round trip and never stopped singing from the start of the game to the full time whistle and beyond. A massive credit to the club and we hope you can all be with us next Saturday, as up next for the Robins is our last game of the season, as we welcome league champions Worksop Town to the Daren Persson Stadium with a 3pm kick off.
North Shields: Steavens, Forster, McDonald, Palmer, Jakab, Walker, Robinson (Turner 65’), Van Zandvliet (Doyle ‘45), Wilson, Cunningham, Larmouth (Joisce 77’).
Subs not used: Hodgson
Attendance: 472
Next Up: Worksop Town (A) – Saturday 22nd April – 3pm
