Recap
Birtley Town returned to winning ways on Saturday with a 3-1 victory over Newcastle University.
Match highlights can be found here. Match programme can be viewed here.
The Hoops were back to winning ways as they made a return to action after a short season break following the death of Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Birtley made four changes to the side that lost to Bedlington Terriers. Sam Hedley returned to replace the suspended Mark Pattison. Conor Grant was back between the posts and replaced Phil Mills. There was a debut start for Jack Harrison who came in for Owen Lancaster, Jack Honour therefore returning to the back four. John Martin made his first start of the season, coming in for Callum Turnbull.
It took 12 minutes for the first real opportunity with Aidan Rutledge blasting over after good work from Callum Smith. Smith then had a decent opportunity to score but his effort was straight at Uni keeper Harry Rowe. The university hit the crossbar on 23 minutes and the game was evenly poised until some magic skill from Jack Harrison saw him in-behind the Uni midfield. He slipped the ball to Rutledge who checked back inside before unleashing a fierce left footed strike. By 30 minutes, Birtley had doubled their lead. Smith was fouled and he took a free kick from the wide right, this was glanced home by skipper Jack Honour. Conor Grant made a fine save to keep the score at 2-0 going into the break.
The university started well and Birtley had to match their efforts with string defending particular from the excellent Jack Honour and Ben Garrity. Harrison again played the ball forward which was flicked on by Smiggs, this left Rutledge running at the last defender. He slipped the ball right and slotted in the bottom right-hand corner to score his second of the afternoon. On 78 minutes, Osiyemi pulled one back. He found himself out wide and managed to work beyond Garrity and fire an excellent strike across Grant and into the bottom-right corner. Birtley defended well despite pressure from the university and were delighted to gain all three points.
Paul Bryson was delighted with the result. “It wasn’t our best performance but what mattered was the result. Its a good result against a very good Newcastle University side. In my opinion, their league position doesn’t reflect the side they have and with players returning, they will be expecting better things going forward. We defended really well, Conor when called upon dealth with things. Ben Garrity was excellent against a really difficult opponent (Osiyemi). Heds and Jack were outsanding, Jack won his headers, made important challenges and broke things up for us. Jack Harrison was very pleasing debut including an assist for the first goal. Aidan got another two goals which was really pleasing. The result sets us up nicely for Tuesday against Billingham Town.”
Player of the Match – Jack Honour
Attendance – 153. An impeccable minutes silence was observed in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
