15th August
By Bill Gardner
Last seasons top three teams in the premier division harraby catholic club, walker central and wark all failed to make a winning start in the new campaign. And reigning champions harraby were soundly beaten 4-1 at home by seaton delaval.
Harrabys rob bainbridge hit the post with a headed attempt but it was delavals stephen anderson who opened the scoring midway through the first half. He ended a determined cross-field run with a 20-yard drive into the top corner.
Harraby got back on terms when a cross from stuart moffat was headed on by marc shiel to allow craig wood to volley home from ten yards. But then, when delavals john fitzpatrick miscued his shot, liam cairns pounced to poke the ball in and give the visitors an interval lead.
The second half was notable mainly for midfield skirmishes but on the hour jordan fry scored seaton delavals third goal from close range when the home defence failed to clear their lines from a flag kick.
Harrabys daniel anderton and shiel went very close to trimming the deficit but delaval still had the last word. Deep into stoppage time michael kennedy completed their tally by flicking the ball past the home keeper after fitzpatrick headed another corner kick down to his feet. And this was delavals first every victory at harraby, giving them something extra to celebrate.
Walker central fielded a very young side against first day visitors cramlington town and lost 3-2. Two goals for jordan watson, his second scored from the spot, gave cramlington an early boost but 16-year-old alex sallin opened walkers account with a tremendous 40-yard effort. Andrew carr restored cramlingtons two-goal advantage before another teenager mike strachan trimmed the deficit again for the central with two minutes to go.
Wark started the new campaign with a visit to newly-promoted gateshead rutherford and shared the spoils from a 2-2 draw. Mike jeffares opened the scoring for rutherford late in the first half but wark soon responded. Last seasons top scorer marc nixon put away a 52nd minute penalty to restore parity and scored his second to put the visitors in front. A gritty rutherford deserved something out of the game and isaac mitchell marked his debut with their equaliser.
There was another 2-2 stalemate featuring ponteland united and alnwick town at the leisure centre ground. The town were fired into a 15th minute lead by scott mcmullen who tapped in a square pass from dale kennedy after the latter beat the offside trap. But ten minutes before the break scott fenwick levelled for united with a daring diving header from david redheads cross.
Ponteland took the lead for the first time after 65 minutes when sean willis found the bottom corner from a free kick awarded for a foul on fenwick but alnwick quickly restored parity. They did the trick with a spectacular volley from their second half substitute stephen hogg.
Like gateshead rutherford, percy main were promoted last term and after a four-year lapse marked their return to the premier division with a 3-0 victory over murton at purvis park. Two goals inside two first half minutes scored by tony browell and michael bowman had the villagers leading 2-0 at the interval. And bowman, making his debut for the main after joining them from morpeth town, netted again straight after the change-over to make the points doubly secure.
Ashington colliers, who finished so strongly last season, took up where they left off and won 2-1 at home to killingworth sporting. After falling behind to paul dunns opener for killy the colliers hit back twice through mark richardson and david brown before half time and held onto their slender advantage.
Shankhouse left it late to clinch a 3-2 verdict against blyth town at northburn and a penalty miss by david dormand didnt help. Blyth had chris lisle and gary day on target but dormand (2) and chris rue replied for the hosts with two of their goals scored in the 87th and 89th minutes.
There was also a 3-2 win for carlisle city away to heaton stannington. City were always in front although they were reeled in twice by a competitive home side. Carl armstrong opened the scoring for the cumbrians only nine minutes into the game but ian mills got heaton back on terms just before half time.
Stuart kilgours 64th minute free kick restored citys lead but once again heaton responded with lawrence mckenna slotting in his free kick for their second equaliser. With six minutes to go however the issue was settled in carlisles favour when 17-year-old striker james hartley came off the bench to score their winner.
DIVISION ONE – REYROLLE LADS ARE ULTRA-SHARP
Berwick united ultras, renamed for their new campaign in the first division, made a bad start and were soundly beaten 4-0 at home by hebburn reyrolle. The visitors, bound to be one of this terms promotion favourites, had their goals shared by mike younger, shannon north, chris morris and simon jacobs.
Newcastle east end and south shields united also celebrated convincing victories on the first day. The east end beat newly-promoted visitors stobswood welfare 3-0 with goals by andy weeks, craig pleasant and wes richardson while south shields won 4-1 away to forest hall who were also promoted last season. New signing aristote guerin, recently released by wolves after suffering a bad injury, scored three of the south shields goals with the other supplied by richard pinkney.
Cullercoats got off to a flying start with a 3-1 success at home to chopwell officials. Dave fairless, craig deighton and steve hart (penalty) were the cullercoats marksmen with a single reply coming from michael seed for the visitors.
Two sides likely to be chasing promotion this time around amble united and whitley bay a met up at amble and the bay clinched a narrow 2-1 victory. Michael dance scored a third minute opener for the hosts and it was only cancelled out by whitleys michael mcmullen midway through the second half. Then with five minutes to spare dean porter netted for the bays late winner.
Newly-promoted north shields athletic were rather fortunate to claim maxim points at scots gap again st wallington. The home side forced eight or nine corners without managing to get on the score sheet and the athletic delivered a sucker punch in the 80th minute when craig boyles goal gave them an unexpected 1-0 win.
Gosforth bohemians drew 1-1 with first day visitors peterlee town who had peter crawford on target to cancel out matt atkins opener for the bohs. And heddon, freshly relegated from the premier division, kicked off their first division campaign with a 2-2 draw with morpeth sporting club at bullocksteads. Morpeths scorers were lee donnelly and karl snow den (penalty) and two replies from chris bell earned heddon a share of the spoils.
DIVISION TWO – NEWCOMERS ON CLOUD NINE
The second divisions new boys simonside sc and red house farm both won comfortably to suggest that theyll quickly adapt to their new surroundings. Simonside in fact are heading the table after hammering hosts newcastle bt 9-1. John elliott actually opened the scoring for bt but it was all downhill after that. Shaun edwards completed his hat-trick for simonside whose remaining scorers were sean flood (2), james roberts (2), ian hudson and craig lumley.
Though not proving as goal-hungry as simonside, red house farm were impressive enough in their 4-1 home win against cramlington united. They had scott mitchell bagging a brace and chris davison and zac brogden also on the mark while cramlington only mustered a single reply from sean chrisp.
Wallsend boys club made the brightest of starts by winning 5-0 away to wideopen & district with andy mcbride helping himself to three of their goals. The others to complete a nap hand in this curtain-raiser were supplied by rob hayne and mike starkie.
Having shown a vast improvement last season tynemouth united took up where they left off and banged in three goals without reply against hosts willington quay saints. Two goals put away by james mills had tynemouth in the comfort zone at half time and for good measure they went on to increase their lead. After the break lee brady banged in his sides third goal.
Wallsend town
cullercoats custom planet had a hat-trick hero in martyn hepple in their 3-2 home win against newcastle chemfica whose replies came from dan jacques and matt harrison. And there was also a 3-2 victory for northbank carlisle over first day visitors swalwell. Relegated northbank, back in the second division after a period of thirteen years, were in front straight from the kick off. Within only twenty seconds paul fiddler was put through and he made no mistake from just inside the box.
Swalwell levelled through darren turbitt when home keeper mark lightfoot dropped the ball and the visitors went 2-1 up almost immediately. Their left back joe adams sent in a curling cross from about 50 yards which sailed over lightfoots head and into the net.
Early in the second half northbank got themselves back on terms as a long throw from martin rickerby was headed on into the goalmouth and fraser vass was able to pick his spot.
There were only three minutes left when john slaven was put through by ross irving and he went round swalwell keeper grant scott to score a late winner for the cumbrians.
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