Bishop Auckland v Emley

Recap

Bishop Auckland 0-4 Emley AFC – Pitching In NPL East Div

Bishops Line up:  Catterick, May, Brown (Haase), Milburn (Eckley-Aldsworth), Risbrough, Howard, Briggs (Hodgson), Bartliff, Giraud (Greaves), Johnson, Tymon

Emley was good value for their top-of-the-table position as the West Yorkshire visitors comprehensively beat the battling ten men of Bishops with three second-half goals.

An opening 15 minutes to forget for the two blues began with a gift of a goal just two minutes in when a Catterick pass was dragged straight to Berchil, and the languid forward who was to be impressive all afternoon, chipped the ball over a defender and into the empty net.

A spate of chances for Emley followed with Catterick making a string of fine saves before Howard was given his marching orders for a lunging attempted tackle which caught Baldwin on the shin.

Despite this setback Bishops did manage to stem the amount of opportunities coming the way of the ‘Pewits’ for the remainder of the half and Louis Johnson came inches wide at the opposite end with a powerful shot.

On 50 minutes Emley scored their second of the afternoon, Baldwin bundling in after the ball was recycled following a shot that rebounded off Catterick’s post.  Bishops were then gifted a chance to reduce the arrears when Tymon was adjudged to have been tugged back in the box but Giraud saw his spot kick saved by Lambton.  Greaves then had a good opportunity following a misplaced kick by Lambton but his floated effort dropped inches over the bar.

The game was quickly taken away from the grasp of Bishops as the excellent Berchil completed his hat-trick against an increasingly weak-looking defence, slotting home on 74 minutes and firing under Catterick via a deflection six minutes later.

On what turned out to be a chastening afternoon at Heritage Park it is two successive games on the road now at Sherwood Colliery and North Ferriby.

Match report by Gavin Hadden