Bishop Auckland v Newcastle Benfield

Recap

Bishop Auckland: Liversedge, Burlace, Errington, McGoldrick, Risbrough, Gott, Daley, Weirs, Fairley, Johnson, Banks

Newcastle Benfield: Grainger, Leech, Dibb-Fuller, McNamara, Read, Walker, Green, Thomas, Brayson, Varga, Gascoigne

Bishops showed steel to grind out a narrow win against tricky opponents to maintain the second spot on the table.  The winning goal came after only 2 minutes when Craig Gott once again demonstrated how to take the perfect penalty kick after a Johnson shot was adjudged to have hit the hand of a visiting defender.

Truth be told Benfield had good spells of possession in the opening half but other than a few snapshots at goal didn’t trouble Liversedge into any saves of note.  In fact, it was Bishops who could easily have gone in at the interval more comfortable but for a couple of questionable offside calls, Weirs first slotting in and then Fairley dinking over Grainger.

Louis Johnson did escape the offside trap but never looked totally comfortable as his shot across goal from an angle was beaten away by the ‘timeless’ Andrew Grainger.

If the first half was competitive the following 45 minutes never really sparked into life as Bishops contained the Newcastle outfit well enough to never look overly stretched in defence.

The best chance of the game fell to Bishops forward Johnson on the hour mark, but his shot when one on one with Grainger curled wide of the post.

With the game drifting toward a conclusion a bizarre incident resulted in Benfield being reduced to only 9 men, Dennis Knight sent to the sin bin and Gascoigne giving his marching orders seconds later for dissent.  There wasn’t much time for Bishops to take advantage of the extra men and moments later it was the two blues celebrating a hard-fought win.

Programme: Bishop v Newcastle Benfield 17.09.22

Team Sheet: BAFC v Newcastle Benfield 17-09-2022