Saturday 30 July
Ebac Northern League Division One
Newton Aycliffe 2 Newcastle Benfield 1
The game got off to a flying start with the home side taking the lead in the fifth minute through an outstanding finish from the returning Jamie Owens whose curling effort beat two defenders and the keeper before finding the bottom left corner.
Aycliffe had the lead and the bulk of the pressure for the first quarter of the game, with Grainger saving well to keep the score at 1-0 inside the first 10 minutes.
Benfield did get a foothold in the game following two lengthy injury stoppages which disrupted Aycliffe’s flow, with Gez Richardson having a decent chance before Ben Dibb-Fuller broke clear of the back line but his shot couldn’t beat Adam McHugh who got down well to smother the ball.
Our visitors started the second period in the same fashion as Aycliffe did in the first and saw two good strikes both miss the target by millimetres with McHugh beaten.
Aycliffe doubled their lead in the 76th minute. Callum Munro slid his pass across the edge of the area to Jack Clarkson and he took his goal with the coolness of a player twice his age as he turned the ball goalwards, finding the bottom corner out of the reach of the helpless Grainger.
The joy on the 17 year old Newtonian’s face, as he was mobbed by his teammates, is a sight we hope to see many more times over coming years at Moore Lane as the link between the Newton Aycliffe first team and its junior sections continue to go from strength to strength.
Benfield pulled a goal back just 3 minutes later. Ryan McGorrigan unleashed an unstoppable strike with the outside of his right boot which flashed past McHugh, who was at full stretch, and smashed into the roof of the net.
Moments later Aycliffe had an attack down the right broken down by a trip on the edge of the Benfield box with the visitors’ Aiden Haley seeing his second yellow card of the day.
As tensions were boiling, Brian sent on 16 year old Charlie Dawson, another Newton Aycliffe junior side graduate who was on for his Northern League debut for his hometown club and who handled the atmosphere with ease.
Still, the game wasn’t over, as twice McHugh had to tip strikes around the post as well as making a fantastic point-blank stop and then a further two goal line clearances, in added time, from the Aycliffe defence were needed before the three points were secured.
Aycliffe now turn their attention to the Emirates FA Cup with a trip to Ashington on Saturday 6th August.
Photo: by Yvonne Wood, showing Aycliffe’s Ben Reay taking on the Benfield defence.