Ebac Northern League Division One, Saturday 19th October 2013
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Ebac Northern League Division One, Saturday 19th October 2013
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Goal highlights from Shildon versus Billingham Town, Saturday 12th October.
It was top versus bottom at Dean Street today, and Shildon demonstrated the gulf between the sides with a thumping 7-0 victory over Billingham Town. A brace from man-of-the-match, Lee Scroggins and from Mark Doninger and a goal each from Sam Garvie, Billy Greulich-Smith and Paul Connor comfortably swept aside Town, who have yet to register a point in this season’s campaign.
Perhaps sensing an opportunity to rest some players before Wednesday night’s vital league match against title contenders, Celtic Nation, Gary Forrest gave Greulich-Smith and Mark Stephenson a starting berth ahead of Paul Connor and Carl Jones.
While many fans arrived expecting a significant increase to the home side’s goal difference, the opening ten minutes suggested the Billingham side may prove sterner opposition, matching Shildon – as they did – in the game’s early moments. But it proved to be a false hope for the visiting fans as Shildon hadn’t yet moved through all the gears. Indeed, even in that shared opening spell, Ben Wood and Darren Richardson both spurned chances to give the Railwaymen the lead.
However, Town’s resistance could only last until the thirteenth minute when Lee Scroggins stepped in to steal a loose ball from Nathan Evans in the midfield. Striding forward uncontested, he unleashed a shot from 22 yards which curled past the last defender and the keeper for his first goal of the season.
Shildon continued to press and Scroggins almost notched his second in the 19th minute, but Javis Wiggan in the Billingham goal saved well with his feet.
It took until the half hour for Shildon to add to the scoreline. A long ball forward by Scroggins picked up pace on the slick surface. Nevertheless, the industrious Billy Greulich-Smith – as is his trademark for chasing lost causes – raced Wiggan to the ball. The keeper’s clearance cannoned off the striker who was able to steer the ball home from the narrowest of angles.
Five minutes before the break it was three. After a corner was half cleared, Ben Wood returned the ball across the box to Doninger, who controlled it superbly before passing to Darren Richardson. The ball was returned to Doninger, who flighted it to the back post. Greulich-Smith rose highest to nod the ball back across the box to the unmarked Scroggins who headed past a helpless Wiggan and doubled his season’s tally.
With the result essentially decided by the break, Mark Hudson and Darren Richardson were permitted a rest ahead of Wednesday evening, with Sam Hodgson and John Brackstone – demonstrating the strength in depth of the Shildon squad – replacing them.
The expectation of a regular rippling of the visitors’ net throughout the course of the second half was to prove as false as the initial hope of the visiting fans – at least until just twenty minutes of the match remained.
The Railwaymen continued to bear down on the Billingham goal, but reverted to last season’s profligacy as several excellent chances went begging.
It wasn’t until the 71st minute that Shildon added to the scoreline and, as if to make up for lost opportunities, the goal opened the floodgates. Billingham won a free kick, which was easily cut out. Sam Garvie took the ball from box to box, feeding Paul Connor, who had replaced Ben Wood. The ball reached Greulich-Smith who moved it on to Scroggins. Looking for his hat-trick, he let fly fly from distance. The blocked shot deflected to the feet of Garvie who seemed surprised to find himself, and two others, onside. He had time to look up and confirm the lack of a flag before stroking the ball home.
In about the same time as Garvie was given to score his goal, another three flew into the visiting net. Billingham appeared to have forgotten the danger posed by the home side and pushed high up field in a misplaced determination to pressurise the home side. Instead they left gaping holes for the speedy Garvie to run into, and he duly set about a ten minute reign of terror that increased the deficit with regularity.
However, it was Scroggins’s slide rule pass from the left that led to the fifth, leaving Doninger to tap in from six yards.
Then Garvie was released, and again fed Doninger, whose shot cannoned off the post, hit Billingham’s Jack Williams and rebounded into the net.
And moments later there was the diminutive terror again, chipping the ball onto the head of Paul Connor, who nodded home from underneath the bar to send Shildon and the delighted home support into seventh heaven. The sound of the final whistle before the infliction of any more punishment was the only hope remaining to the hapless visitors. It was the only wish they were to have fulfilled on an otherwise desperate day.
The result ensures that the Railwaymen remain at the top of the table before Celtic Nation come visiting on Wednesday night. The big-spending Carlisle outfit, managed by ex-Celtic player, Willie McStay, will be the biggest test to date of Shildon’s title credentials. A number of rested players will be fresh, and hungry, for the task.
Shildon marched to the top of the Northern League Division One table tonight after a comfortable win against ten-man Morpeth Town.
The home side had their numbers reduced within 15 minutes when Steven Anderson received a straight red card for kicking Mark Hudson in the face while the Shildon captain lay on the ground after being fouled.
Although both sides had chances in the first period, Shildon’s numerical advantage saw them come closest to opening the scoring. Ben Wood’s curling shot cannoned off the bar while Paul Connor forced an excellent save from Steven Mundy. The home goalkeeper was performing heroics to keep Shildon at bay during the first half.
The home side went into the break having survived the onslaught, but they had barely drawn breath in the second half before the Railwaymen were two up.
Two minutes after the restart, Ben Wood scored a curling, dipping free kick from 22 yards and, almost immediately, Sam Garvie fed Paul Connor who deftly chipped the keeper for a swift two-goal lead that allowed Shildon to take complete control of the match.
The Railwaymen cruised through the remainder of the tie before adding two late goals to more accurately reflect the dominance of the visitors. Mark Hudson fed Sam Garvie on the right edge of the box for the striker to slot home before the captain added to the tally himself by dispatching a penalty in the 90th minute.
Shildon’s competitiors for top spot both slipped up in tough ties this afternoon. Celtic Nation lost at home to ten man West Auckland while Spennymoor were held at Heritage Park by Bishop Auckland.
The results mean that Shildon, for the first time since season 2009-10 – and with six home matches in a row coming up – sit proudly atop the league table this evening.
Before a welcome run of six home league matches in a row, it’s another road trip for the Railwaymen tomorrow, as they visit Northumberland’s league newcomers, Morpeth Town on Ebac Northern League Division One duty.
It will be the fifth away match on the trot for Shildon who, by the time of Consett’s visit to Dean Street next Wednesday evening, will have been away from home for almost a month.
Morpeth have had a mixed start to their Division One campaign, opening with two heavy defeats before crushing Liversedge by 6-0 in the FA Cup. The win gave the side a confidence boost from which they went on to record a six match unbeaten run in league and cup.
As well as the six against Liversedge – whom Shildon defeated last season in the FA Vase – Morpeth have scored seven goals twice this season: once in the league and the other time in the league cup, but both times against top division opposition.
Meanwhile, Shildon go into the match as the form team in the league. Having dropped just two points in a six-match run including five away ties, the Railwaymen have scored twenty and conceded just four times.
Going into the fixture, Shildon’s hosts lie in 19th position in the league, collecting 8 points from their 9 matches. At home they have won twice and lost twice, with the four ties witnessing a staggering 28 goals – an average of seven per game.
Shildon lie third in the table, level with Spennymoor, who visit Heritage Park for a local derby against Bishop Auckland, and just three points behind leaders Celtic Nation, who host West Auckland at Gilford Park.
No doubt the fans paying their way in to Craik Park will be hopeful of seeing another feast of goals tomorrow. The visitors will be hoping the majority find their way into the home side’s netting.
Kick off tomorrow is at 3pm. For location details and other information about the club, pay a visit to the Morpeth Town website.
There will be no midweek match this week for the Railwaymen as cup matches take precedence.
Shildon were originally scheduled to play local rivals Newtown Aycliffe at home, but when that tie was postponed, a new fixture against Guisborough Town was scheduled.
However, with Guisborough drawing their weekend FA Cup tie, the replay will take place instead of the league match, giving the Railwaymen a rest from their recent travels.
The side’s next match will now be next Saturday, 5th October and will once more be away, to league newcomers, Morpeth Town.
That tie will be followed by a sequence of six home league matches, beginning on Wednesday 9th October against Consett.
Goal highlights from Shildon’s clash at Billingham Synthonia, Saturday 28th September.
Shildon AFC have completed the signing of Bedlington Terriers central midfielder, Mark Doninger.
Mark brings a wealth of experience to the club, having played for top flight Icelandic sides, Stjarnan FC and IA Akraness (pictured) as well as Irish Premier League side Sligo Rovers.
Beginning his career at Newcastle United, he has also played at Team Northumbria in the Northern League and, in 2009-10, Blyth Spartans in the Conference North.
The 23-year-old is the latest player to join Gary Forrest’s revamped Shildon side this season.
This was a one-sided affair. Even more so than the scoreline suggests, with one first half shot finding the wrong side of the upright and Mark Hudson’s 100% penalty conversion record coming to an end with his unlucky thirteenth in the second half.
Countless corners and a number of last ditch blocks and saves prevented Shildon from notching the highest goals tally of a day that saw 41 scored across seven Division One ties (that accolade went to Ashington, who netted eight times at bottom side Billingham Town).
However, there weren’t many in the ground prepared to denigrate Hebburn’s performance. Most were sympathetic of their plight, being abandoned as they were in the summer by their management team and entire player squad, all of whom decamped to Jarrow.
The makeshift side, hastily assembled in the close season, were no competition for a strong Shildon and, unfortunately for an otherwise well-respected club, their chances of remaining in the top division look remote indeed.
That said, Shildon, for all their dominance, went in to the half time break with a two goal lead consisting of two fortunate strikes. Of course, as the old adage reminds us, diligence is the mother of good luck, and it wasn’t for want of creating chances that Shildon’s total wasn’t greater in the first forty-five.
Paul Connor, who had seen one shot on the turn cannon off the upright, did his best to get out of the road of Lee Scroggin’s shot on 14 minutes. However, fortunately for him and for the home side, the shot, which was going wide, found his shin and deflected past the helpless Andrew Hunter in the Hebburn goal.
It took until the final seconds of the half before the Railwaymen found the net again, and again it was a goal of good fortune. The ball was swept wide to the marauding Darren Richardson on the left and his cross sailed over Hunter and under the bar. His own bemusement at the nature of the goal was confirmation, if it was needed, that the strike was not premeditated.
In the second half, the floodgates opened, although the defences were briefly held back by Hunter when he saved a Mark Hudson penalty. Hudson himself was fouled and rose to place the ball on the spot for the thirteenth time in his Shildon career. The previous twelve had been dispatched successfully, but whether superstition got the better of him or not, this effort was probably his weakest to date. In saying that, Hunter had to travel and drop low to his left in order to make a fine stop.
It was a mere finger in a widening crack and within minutes, the defences collapsed and the runaway Railwaymen flooded the net with four more goals in short order.
Billy Greulich-Smith, who had replaced Sam Garvie, was on hand to nod Richardson’s cross into the path of Ben Wood who swept the ball home from 12 yards.
Just two minutes later, a Mark Hudson corner once more found the head of the tall Greulich-Smith. In the subsequent scramble the ball was headed out to the eighteen-yard box, only for Richardson to thunder an unstoppable rocket past the rooted goalkeeper.
Then Ben Wood collected the ball from Jamie Harwood and, with a smart turn, left the defence trailing. Paul Connor, in an acre of space in the box, deftly controlled Wood’s pass and sold the goalkeeper the opposite way before tapping into a now empty net.
With more than 15 minutes remaining on the clock, Hebburn were hit for six when man-of-the-match, Ben Wood, collected the third brace of the day.
Wood, whose footballing career looked to be cut devastatingly short last season as the result of a serious bone illness, has been a revelation this season. Where last season he may have held on to the ball for too long at times, this season he is already stretching away at the top of the assists chart, having set up a third of the side’s goals so far. And with his second strike of this game – a fierce angled drive from the corner of the six yard box – he also takes over at the top of the scoring chart with five for the season.
The medical staff are constantly monitoring his condition and, with Ben in this magnificent form, everyone at the club will be hoping he can be kept fit, if not for all of it, then for as much of the season as possible.
With the game well out of sight, the rampant Railwaymen eased down the gears, satisfied with their day’s work. Hebburn may have feared further humiliation, but neither their adversaries nor the spectators were clamouring for more. The afternoon’s goals were scored and Shildon left the field at full time to a standing ovation.
Picture highlights
Video highlights
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