Bishop Auckland v West Auckland Town

Recap

Bishop Auckland: Liversedge, Errington, McGoldrick, Burlace, Banks, Daley, Weirs, Whitfield, Fairley, Johnson, Giles

West Auckland: Cameron, Hegarty, Brown, Short, Lay, Potter, Hume, Jackson, Ellis, Nicholson, Blinco

A superb remembrance parade gave way to an action-packed ‘Auckland derby’, with Bishops clawing their way back from two-goal deficits on two occasions.

The visitors silenced the majority of the 629 Heritage Park crowd with a pair of goals inside the first 12 minutes, with Bishops looking hesitant and nervy following on from the heavy defeat at Ashington.  Corey Nicholson was set up to slot past Liversedge and then Ellis drove into the box and his effort wrongfooted Bishops number 1.

James Fairley and Louis Johnson had decent openings to reduce the deficit before further scares when Ellis drove into the side netting and then Hegarty crashed a shot against the underside of the crossbar with McGoldrick then hacking the ball clear.

Just two minutes before the break Whitfield got Bishops back in the game with a much-needed goal when he met a Fairley pullback and powered his shot through the body of Cameron.  The momentum had already begun to swing in the Bishops’ favour and the interval probably favoured ‘West’.

With Bishops starting the half on the front foot a big blow was dealt by Hume on 49 minutes when he latched onto a clever through ball and placed the ball past Liversedge.  However, the two blues quickly responded with Johnson following in a teasing Banks free kick to glance the ball past Cameron.

Bulmer replaced Fairley for only his 2^nd appearance and this appeared to give Bishops further impetus, the equaliser coming on 72 minutes when the previously luckless Giles crossed in from the left-hand side of the box and Cameron made a huge mess of gathering as the ball trickled across the line.

This set up a frantic finish to the game with both sides missing glorious chances.  Ellis curled his shot just wide of the left post when clean through and at the other end Giles found space 6 yards out in the dying minutes but Cameron produced a fine diving save with the rebound then blocked by the imperious Gary Brown.  McGoldrick was also sent off for Bishops late in the game when he was adjudged to have pulled back a ‘West’ forward.