The Young Robins put in a brave performance as they bow out of the FA Youth Cup with a 7-0 loss to Bury FC.
An own goal, followed by two goals for Aaron Brown and one for Callum Hulme gave the visitors a commanding 4-0 lead at the half time break.
Further goals in the second period for Jack Hatton, Joe Adams and Saul Shotton brought the score up to 7-0 in favour of the Shakers.
And despite their best efforts, the Young Robins were unable to get onto the scoresheet as their heroic FA Youth Cup run came to an end.
The hosts got off to a very unfortunate start as in the third minute, a cross to the near post was diverted into his own net by Scott Shephard; giving the Shakers a very early lead.
Not wanting to let the game get away from them, the Young Robins fought back against the talented Bury side and if not for a pretty impressive piece of defending from a retreating defender, Thomas Kalthoeber’s excellent run could have been rewarded with an equalising goal.
The visitors strong start was almost reinforced in the 14th minute when Joe Adams almost hammered the ball home from the edge of the six yard box, however, the ball had too much pace on it and his effort instead flew into the side netting.
Bury were not made to regret this missed opportunity as in the 25th minute, Aaron Brown was able to double their lead when he fired the ball across the keeper and into the bottomr corner of the net.
At this point, the only thing that was stopping the Shakers from adding a third was some excellent defending from the Young Robins and in the 32nd minute, Femi Soriki’s goalbound shot was excellently deflected away to safety by the determined home defence.
However, the visitors quality was was hard to restrain and in the 37th minute, after Bury were awarded a penalty for tripping, Callum Hulme stepped up to send Shields keeper James Pearth the wrong way to extend the lead further.
Whilst the Young Robins were doing their best to stifle the red-hot Bury attack, they weren’t able to deal with Aaron Brown when he spun on a dime on the edge of the box before unleashing a shot which deflected in off the post after 40 minutes.
The second half started as the first had began and in the 47th minute, Joe Adams beat two Robins defenders before unleashing a strike past the advancing Peart to add a fifth to the scoreline.
Despite the lop-sided scoreline, the Young Robins were still giving their all towards getting on the scoresheet. As the clock his the 65th minute, Owen Brearton collected the ball on the edge of the box before curling an effort towards the Bury goal. Unfortunately, the attempt was smartly saved by Bury keeper Mark Edwards-Williams.
Having survived a strong spell from the hosts, the Shakers got back into their groove and in the 73rd minute, Adams scored the goal of the game when after charging at the Shields defence, he unleashed a brilliant curling effort from 25 yards out which looped over the keeper’s head before nestling into the top corner of the net.
With the game coming to it’s conclusion, their was still enough time for Bury to add their seventh, and final, goal when Saul Shotton was on hand to divert a deeply swung corner past the tiring home defence and into the back of the net in the 79th minute.
Despite some heroic late pressure for the Robins, Bury were able to hold on to their lead and progress through to the next round where they will face Fleetwood Town at home.
Final Score: North Shields U18’s 0 Bury FC U18’s 7
Attendance: 256
Referee: Jack Gordon
North Shields Starting Eleven: James Peart, Thomas Kalthoeber, Robbie Christie, Steven Carey, Michael Woods, Scott Shephard, Tom Hizzett, Ben Gaffney, Owen Brearton, Connor Walker, Phil Riley
Substitutes: Jamie Clark, Liam Renwick, Jordan Armstrong, Josh Skivington, Danny Anderson
Bury Starting Eleven: Mark Edwards-Williams, Aaron Skinner, Jack Hatton, Callum Hulme, Sam Allardyce, Saul Shotton, Joe Adams, Callum Jones, Aaron Brown, Oliver Patrick, Femi Soriki
Substitutes: Edward Jones, Bobby Copping, Alen Moisin, Cedric Ondoa, Rafael Achilleos
