Recap
Birtley opened up their pre-season campaign with a credible 3-3 draw at home to Northern Premier League Premier Division side Morpeth Town.
Whilst its all about getting minutes into legs at this stage of the season, Birtley looked promising and went in ahead at the interval from a well-placed Kelvin Thear strike from just inside the box following a short corner. Morpeth were creating chances themselves and could have levelled soon after but saw an excellent diving header come back off the post before being swept to safety.
At the interval, Morpeth changed their entire team except goalkeeper Dan Langley whilst Birtley also shuffled the pack a bit; Dan McGuire and Jack Elliott replacing Sam Dinsley and Dan Wilds respectively while goalscorer Thear was replaced by one of three Birtley trialists.
Morpeth equalised in the 49th minute following a rare Josh Strassheim misplaced pass which allowed Nic Bollado to round Gordon. It didn’t take long for Birtley to regain the lead though when a Scott Heslop free kick from distance took a heavy deflection off a Morpeth defender to beat the diving Dan Langley.
Three changes followed for Birtley with Isaac Robinson replacing Alfie Gordon in goal and two more trialists replacing Heslop and Pentland respectively. A minute later one of the said trialists put Birtley 3-1 up when he poked home a loose ball following an attack from James Proctor.
With rolling subs, Birtley made two more changes; Dinsley and Wilds returned to the fray replacing Proctor and Wharton for the final fifteen minutes.
Morpeth pulled a goal back in the 78th minute with a great attack down the left-hand side, Jack Foalle cutting inside the defender to finish with aplomb inside Robinson’s far corner. Two minutes later, the scores were level. A similar scenario to their previous goal which came from the left-hand side but this time the pass was played across the face of goal and slotted in by the same player, Jack Foalle at the back stick.
Birtley had Robinson to thank for keeping the scores level with five minutes to go as he pulled off a couple of excellent saves as the game finished bang on 90 minutes.
Up next for Birtley is a “home” friendly against Wearside Premier Division side Durham FC Corinthians which will be played at our spiritual home of Birtley Welfare, DH3 1EN on Tuesday evening with a 7:30pm kick off.
FREE entry for all. We’ll see you there.
