Birtley Town vs West Allotment Celtic

Recap

Birtley suffered a second straight league defeat on Saturday afternoon, at the hands of a resurgent West Allotment Celtic side.

Our matchday programme can be found here. 

The visitors took no time at all to get in front, with rapid Frenchman Cyril Giraud slotting past Alfie Gordon in only the fourth minute. Matthew Ward almost got the Hoops level in the 16^th minute, but Allotment skipper Michael Scott was on-hand to make a goal-line clearance. Scott was in the thick of it again shortly afterwards, receiving a yellow card for bringing down James Proctor. West Allotment continued to have the best of the game, and Gordon twice had to be alert to keep his side in it.

Half-Time | Birtley Town 0 – 1 West Allotment Celtic

The game continued in the same vein after the break, with a visiting attacker beating Gordon, only for Callum Turnbull to get back and clear the danger. On 53 minutes, Birtley got themselves back on terms through Scott Heslop, who finished off what was proved to be the Hoops’ best move of the game. But any hope of a comeback was quickly dismissed, as within a minute West Allotment had regained their advantage through Lucas Lowery. The young attacker completed his brace five minutes later following a quick break, and other than a couple of half-chances for Proctor and Heslop, Birtley never looked like getting back into the game.

Full-Time | Birtley Town 1 – 3 Birtley Town

 A bad day at the office for the Hoops, who lacked a bit of their normal attacking flair. West Allotment took full advantage and were good value for the win. With the fixtures coming thick and fast, Birtley have a change to put things right on Tuesday night with a visit to Seaham Red Star.

Manager’s Corner

Paul Bryson: “It was a blow that Alex Francis was missing for today’s game. We didn’t start the game well, it was frustrating as we knew how they would play. We knew Guy Bates would drop in and look to link the play. That’s where the first goal came from, there was a lack of communication. We had a lot of experience in the side but I felt we were very quiet. For the remainder of the first half we tried to get back into the game but we lacked intensity and quality. We came in 1-0 down and changed the formation, we brought Glen on and started the second period really well. We scored a great goal through Hezzy to come back into the game. Within a minute we had conceded again through some really poor defending, we got punished and were 2-1 behind. We were pushing for an equaliser but lost possession on the edge of their area. They counter attack and it’s 3-1. We had a strong appeal for a penalty but it wasn’t given. The game got stretched and they are very dangerous on the counter attack. West Allotment deserved to win the game. We certainly didn’t do enough to win the game. We can’t afford to make mistakes in this division, we have gifted a couple of goals today. The good thing is that we have a chance to put things right on Tuesday.”

H2H vs West Allotment Celtic (at Birtley)

P5 W1 D1 L3 GF6 GA11

Next up…

The Hoops mark the short trip down the A19 to face Seaham Red Star on Tuesday in a 7.30pm kick-off. 

Highlights