Recap
Newcastle Benfield come out on top in their return to The Arrowmark.
The Hoops were hoping for a better outcome on Tuesday night but Newcastle Benfield had other ideas and wanted revenge for their previous visit. Benfield have been in good form so far this season, and The Hoops are finding their feet in a new system, with new faces and a new management team.
If Benfield scored, it was only going to come through one man; Glen Hargrave. He opened the scoring after just three minutes after heading a cross past Alfie Gordon in the Birtley net. Benfield extended their lead after 26 minutes through Hargrave again as he continued his fine form, showing just how he enjoyed success with The Hoops.
Birtley were able to pull one back through James Proctor in the 36th minute from another header. Following the goal, The lads in green and white started to put the pressure on, but the half time whistle came too soon.
HALF TIME | Birtley Town 1 – 2 Newcastle Benfield
The lads came out swinging in the second half but despite all their efforts they weren’t able to find the equaliser. Instead, Benfield broke through again and bagged their third through Kyle Fryatt. Benfield were back in control after this until the minutes to started to run out. Right at the death, Jay McLean was able to pull one back and instil hope in the Hoops with his first goal for the club. There was a mad rush through injury time to find an equaliser but Benfield had done enough to take the points home with them.
FULL TIME | Birtley Town 2 – 3 Newcastle Benfield
Attendance – 210
Manager’s Corner
We spoke with Coach Chris Reay after the game to get his thoughts “The short answer is we weren’t good enough over the 90 minutes which is really frustrating following everything that went right on Saturday. Tonight in the moment the goals aren’t great to have conceded, but we will watch everything back and pick out the problems and look to improve on this.”
“Going forward we need to make sure that we play to our strengths more, and the 2nd goal went in when we may have had time to find a 3rd and steal a point on this occasion. We are back to scoring ways and we know what we need to focus on going into our next game”
Next up…
The Hoops travel down to Teesside to face Boro Rangers on Saturday, you can read our match preview HERE.
Highlights
