Recap
Danni Lay produced a man-of-the-match performance to help the Bishops negotiate a tricky second half. The towering central defender comes centre forward and got on the scoresheet twice, including during a twelve-minute spell of three goals at the end of the game to crush basement side Thornaby’s hopes of a huge upset.
A relatively sedate opening period played out in very pleasant conditions starkly contrasted to the second half after a substantial halftime downpour. Lay saw a lot of the ball as Bishops went with a more direct style in the early stages, but it was a lovely move consisting of a slick one-two that released the ‘forward’ down the left on 21 minutes and he made no mistake with a shot under Dean.
Giles almost doubled the lead on 36 minutes but Dean got down to his near post to smother the shot. Bishops seemed to negotiate the first half with a measure of control despite Hindson having the home side’s best opening with a nice move seeing Catterick block his tame shot.
Ten minutes after the interval a sublime goal levelled the scores when Pickett teed himself up and his shot from 25 yards flew past Catterick. Patton thought he had put Bishops back in front but his header was ruled out for offside and then on 61 minutes Thornaby was ahead, debutant Booth glanced a header into the far corner from an inviting whipped ball into the box.
Bishops looked shell-shocked and had to wait until the 79th minute to get back on level terms, Lay leaping to head home a Giles cross from six yards. A couple of minutes later Fairley got Bishop’s vital third goal, cooly guiding a header past Dean from a tricky angle. As Thornaby looked to salvage something from the game Giles had a great chance that he guided just wide but with the last kick of the game he again broke free and rounded the last defender to set up an easy finish.
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