Recap
Bishops’ cruised to another win at the ‘Wanted Stadium’ in West Auckland, on a night when the major decisions went the way of the two blues, including two penalties which Craig Gott put away with his usual calmness.
Debutant Liam Cooke impressed in midfield as Bishops came flying out of the blocks and tested former keeper Nick Liversedge multiple times. Liversedge got down to save an effort from the excellent Johnson and beat out an effort from Giles on the opposite flank as Bishops’ sharp attacking play threatened to swamp the ‘West’ defence.
However, on 13 minutes the home side almost took a surprise lead when a mistake let in a forward but Catterick came to the rescue with a fine save to deflect the ball out for a corner. Gott stroked home his first penalty after 18 minutes when Cooke was fouled after chasing down the rebound from his initial effort. Liversedge continued to bail out ‘West’ and Bishops would have felt a little shortchanged to be only one goal to the good at the interval and were dealt a blow as Gott was sent to the ‘sin bin’ for a ten-minute period that would extend into the start of the second half.
‘West’ re-started the game looking to make their temporary numerical advantage count and Catterick had to be alert to a dangerous ball across the goal. Despite it not being a particularly aggressive game the yellow card count on both sides was becoming a concern and the home side was reduced to ten men when Hope was red-carded for what appeared to be dissent. Gary Brown was then sent to the ‘sin bin’ leaving Bishops with plenty of space to exploit as the game entered its final quarter.
Henderson was shoved to the ground for Gott to dispatch his second spot kick on 70 minutes, and as Bishops looked to inflict further damage Liversedge made an excellent double save to deny Cooke and then Henderson.
Giles cut inside to drill home under Liversedge and substitute Parnaby had a shot deflected over a couple of defenders to wrong-foot Liversedge and round off a ruthless Bishops’ performance in the closing stages.
Match report by Gavin Hadden
v 