North Shields vs Birtley Town

Recap

Birtley suffered their second league defeat of the season on Saturday afternoon, as a clinical North Shields side ran out 3-1 winners at the Daren Persson stadium.

The Hoops nearly get off to the perfect start, with Glen Hargrave rushing on to Callum Smith’s through-ball, but keeper Fin Hodgson was out quickly to claim it.

On 11 minutes, James Proctor came close to putting the Hoops ahead, only to see his long-range strike fizz past the upright. Further chances fell for Liam Wotherspoon and Owen Lancaster, but it was the home side who broke deadlock in the 26^th minute, as Regan Patterson collected a loose ball in the box and fired past Alfie Gordon.

North Shields were in the ascendency at this point, with Tom Potter forcing a fantastic save from Gordon soon afterwards and within minutes, they had doubled their lead through David Palmer following more great work from Patterson. On the verge of half-time, Alex Francis gave the Hoops a lifeline, finishing from close range after Hodgson had palmed away his first attempt. Kyle Wharton then almost had his side back on level terms, with Hodgson doing well to deny his long-range effort.

 HALF TIME | North Shields 2-1 Birtley Town

 The second-half got off to a scrappy start, with tackles flying in from both sides, and several players lucky not to be carded. Shields were still on top at this point, and on 54 minutes Palmer missed a gilt-edged chance to extend his side’s lead, turning his shot wide from inside the six-yard box. The chances kept on coming, and Hoops’ keeper Gordon produced three outstanding saves within a three minute period to keep the Hoops in the game, which even had the home fans applauding.

Wharton once again came close to an equaliser on the hour mark, racing onto Smith’s pass only to place his effort over the crossbar. Birtley’s hope of stealing a point were dealt a blow on 79 minutes as Owen Lancaster was dismissed for a professional foul after making contact with substitute Rio Joisce and on 88 minutes, Shields got the cushion their play deserved, as Potter picked Lewi Orrell’s pocket before dinking past Gordon, to scenes of relief and jubilation from the home crowd. Birtley seemed to be on the wrong side of several key decisions during the game, but they can have no complaints about the result, as a creative North Shields took their chances and with it all three points.

FULL TIME | North Shields 3-1 Birtley Town

Player of the Match – Alfie Gordon

Attendance – 218

Manager’s Corner

Paul Bryson: “I thought we started the game really well, it was quite even with both teams trying to work each other out. We had nice passages of play and Proc had a very good long range effort. We dropped a short pass which was intercepted and they make it 1-0. Goals change games and we looked a little bit anxious after this point. We settled again before another bad error leads to another goal. We were 2-0 down despite playing quite well, we were certainly competitive. Glen had a great chance to to get one back. We did manage one back just before the break through a set piece and Alex Francis. The message at half-time was that we need to nullify the mistakes but have the belief we can get back into the game.”

“I thought Shields were the better side in the second half. At 2-1 we were always in the game. We made a few changes to try and get back into the game. Just as we were making a few adjustments we went down to 10 men after a long ball beats us and Owen getting sent off. We made another bad mistake to then concede a third goal. We were pleased with the first-half performance but we can’t make the mistakes that we did, not in this league. It was frustrating. We need to pick ourselves up before Whickham on Friday evening. It should be a good encounter and we look forward to it”. 

Overall H2H vs North Shields
P40 W14 D11 L15 GF61 GA68

H2H vs North Shields (at North Shields)
P21 W7 D7  L7 GF33 GA36

Next up…

The Hoops will look to get back to winning ways on Friday night, with a trip to Whickham AFC in the FA Vase. It’s sure to be a cracking night under the floodlights.

Highlights – Courtesy of North Shields TV