Bishop Auckland v Newton Aycliffe

Recap

Bishops were duly punished for a sloppy, lacklustre performance by a young, energetic Newton Aycliffe side on a warm, sunny bank holiday afternoon at the Vest Construction Stadium.

Mickey Roberts almost gave Bishops an early lift when his diving header was blocked on the line by a defender.

The visitors took the lead with their first attack on 25 minutes, a cross from the right found the head of an attacker, Gordon saving, but the rebound was prodded in by veteran Deverdics off the underside of the crossbar.

Eratt-Thompson squandered a great opportunity to draw the game level four minutes later when he sliced wide from a perfect Thexton lay off.  Aycliffe dished out further punishment on 34 minutes when a low cross along the floor picked out an unmarked Lowery at the far post to bundle home.

A raft of subs were made to try and inject life into Bishops, but within three minutes of the restart, a sloppy pass was intercepted and Nkunku blasted the ball inside Gordon’s near post to leave the majority of the 590 in attendance shell-shocked.

On the hour mark, Bishops were given a route back into the game when Jarvie was felled inside the box, and although Thexton had his initial kick saved, he blasted in the rebound.

Aycliffe had opportunities thwarted by Gordon as the Bishops’ defence understandably pushed on, and after Thomas produced a fine run with his effort narrowly drifting away from the onrushing Thexton, the substitute grabbed a goal with four minutes left, latching onto a Spence header to score.

Seven minutes of stoppage time saw a Coppinger shot narrowly wide, but the ‘Newtonians’ clung on for an impressive win.

Match report by Gavin Hadden