Chester-le-Street Town vs Birtley Town

Recap

Birtley Town advanced to the next round of the Durham Challenge Cup with an excellent display against neighbours Chester-le-Street Town at Moor Park.

What is always a well-contested tie between the two sides and in front of a bumper crowd of 342, The Hoops put their Chester-le-Street counterparts to the sword with three well-taken goals.

The first chance fell after only five minutes when a long throw-in from Owen Lancaster – participating in his 200th Birtley Town game – was half parried by the Chester keeper Alex Lawrence. The ball arrived at the edge of the box where the strike fired through a sea of bodies and was somehow cleared right off the line by a defender.

Lancaster was involved again for the opening goal when another of his long throws was headed home by Dale Burrell who grabbed his first goal in Birtley colours. Chester had a couple of chances in the first half, notably in the 29th minute when they countered from an unsuccessful penalty appeal by Birtley, young Max Campbell sprinting from his goalline to clear the danger.

Birtley went two goals ahead in the 34th minute through a fantastic free kick from Kaleb Young. Won by Liam Thear around 30 yards from goal, Young unleashed a powerful strike that left the keeper helpless as it sailed into the top corner, certainly catching a few more by surprise, including myself.

Thear could have extended that lead to three just before the break but he fired over from six yards out after outmuscling the defender. Chester Captain, Nick Little then headed inches wide of Campbell’s upright in the 42nd minute.

HALF TIME | CHESTER-LE-STREET TOWN 0-2 BIRTLEY TOWN

Half time brought a double change for the hosts; Aaron Croft replaced former Birtley player Flynn Martindale and top scorer Luca Nelson replacing full back Ryan Dougherty (not the former Birtley player) resulting in a change of formation. A change for Birtley also happened with Nick Marley replacing Liam Thear for the second half.

It took Marley roughly 32 seconds to make his impact as he fired a rocket into the bottom corner from the edge of the box…something which also caught a few out – myself included (again) who incorrectly described it as a header.

Chester’s third change came soon after with Harry Norris replacing Ryan Wright. Marley almost grabbed a second soon after but saw his close-range effort blocked off the line for a corner, which was incorrectly awarded as a goal kick. This was followed up by Max Campbell who came to his sides rescue with a double save in as many minutes to deny two very good Chester chances.

FULL TIME | CHESTER-LE-STREET TOWN 0-3 BIRTLEY TOWN

A great performance from the lads ensured we kept a second successive clean sheet and also advanced to the last 16 of the Durham Challenger Cup. Next up for Birtley, it’s high-flying Kendal Town at home on Saturday afternoon. There’s no Premier League because of the International break so why not join us at The Arrowmark?

MOTM: Dale Burrell – quite possibly his best performance in Birtley colours and he also opened the scoring with a well-taken header. 
Attendance: 342
2nd round draw: Will be streamed live from West Auckland’s ground on 17th October, when we’re there for our league game.

Previous H2H vs Chester-le-Street Town (at Moor Park)
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