Durham City (Away) Match Report

Opponent: Durham City (Away)

Date/Time: 29 Dec 15:00

Competition: ANL1

Result: 1 - 1

Team:
Newton, B Ryan,(A Stephenson), Wells, L Ryan, P Stephenson, Keegan, Scott. Walklate, Tarrant, (Tait), Cogdon, Hodgson (Cullen)

Report:
Billed as the match of the day in the ANL this game did not disappoint. As early as the 3rd minute Gavin Cogdon showed great skill in bursting through the Durham defence but his low well struck shot was brilliantly saved by John Mohan. At the other end Adam Johnson fired a shot into the side netting. Nissan hit the bar after 12mins and Richard Hodgson was guilty of blasting the rebound wide of the target. He made amends 6 mins later when he volleyed home from eight yards after Neil Tarrant had headed down a David Wells cross. Durham responded to this with a spell of pressure that saw both Johnson and English go close. A freekick from English was superbly saved Paul Newton. Nissan should have gone 2 - 0 up when once again the dangerous Cogdon burst past the last defender and with only Mohan to beat saw his shot rebound or the Keepers legs. Durham picked up the pace in the latter stages of the first half and finished the stronger. The second half saw both teams committed to attacking football Johnson loooked to have levelled the scoring when his shot beat the keeper but David Wells cleared off the line. The game changed dramatically after an accidental clash between Ben Ryan and Andrew Bowes left Ryan prostrate on the floor and he was stretchered off to be replace by Andrew Stephenson. This enforced change saw the emergence of Durham's Stephen Capper as the man of the match he was creating acres of space for himself and his passing a crosses into the box were causing major problems for the Nissan defence. However Durham were unable to make this pressure tell and when they did breach Nissan's resolute defence they were unable to find a way round the inspirational Newton. In fact it was Nissan who almost scored when once again the Cogdon v Mohan contest was won by the Durham Keeper. In the 86th minute Durham equalised when Newton pulled off a magnificent save unfortunately the ball rebounded into a crowd of players and was eventually forced over the line by Richard Smith. Durham threw caution to the wind in an attempt to win the game but Nissans well drilled defence coped with everything thrown at them in the final minutes.

Scorers: Hodgson

Verdict:

"Best all round Nissan performance for some considerable time. Overall a draw was probably a fair result but both teams had chances to win this game. "

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