View from the Cemetery

This below is the View that is in the programme for the Shildon game, but not many people have seen that…

Bear in mind it was written on Thursday night/Friday morning. Hope you enjoy and hopefully we will be back at some time. I will try and post something to the website every now and then anyway. Be lucky.

This weekend we have two Northern League teams playing in the first leg of the semi finals of the FA Vase, both favourites in their respective ties and with every chance of getting through to give us another all Northern League Final and a fun day out at Wembley. But when will that final be? Or even, when will the second legs of the semis be played? My guess is August.

The news this morning, Friday, that coronavirus Covid-19 has reached the Premier League with both Arsenal and Chelsea reporting cases, and with football in Ireland, France, Span and others already in shut down, makes it seem inevitable that we will have to go down the same path, with professional games being postponed or played behind closed doors, and sooner rather than later. It maybe that those games and clubs at levels where they can be confident of not attracting more than 500 spectators will be allowed to continue, or maybe not, but big games in non league stadia and a Wembley Final?  Nobody wants to play behind closed doors and it makes little sense anyway, financial or sporting, so if things are postponed for a few weeks then where is the leeway to fit games in? Like I say, August…

So, when does a bit of a slump become a crisis? Must be getting close. I know you can make a fair few excuses, with various disruptions but even so, we need to start picking up a few more points from somewhere soon. Five league defeats in a row and a loss in a cup tie as well makes for fairly grim reading. Last Wednesday night up at Whickham was disappointing mainly because we started so well, and pretty much controlled the first half. But, as is our downfall at the moment, we only had a one goal lead to show for it, and as soon as we turned round for the second half it was clear, if we needed reminding, that Whickham know how to play their pitch. Everything went down their left and eventually they made hay from a series of opportunities to level things up and then win the game in the last ten minutes. We had a couple of chances and a Dylan Elliott effort rules out for offside but by the end Whickham were well worth their win, their first at home since August. Worrying, very worrying.

Well, a win or two to celebrate is good, yes? A very nice feeling. And good wins at that, against good opposition. All credit to the lads and the management team, a bit of a tweak to the system and a consistent selection, and hey presto! Things can and have got radically better.

There is no doubt however that the win over at North Shields last week was the one to make people sit up and take notice. Result or no result, North Shields are a big strong, committed and capable team, on a real good run of form and they will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, no question. But it didn’t help them much as we controlled their attacks in the first half when they had all the benefit of the conditions, and when the weather situation was reversed after half time we came on very, very strong.

So, a win against Northallerton, well deserved but a bit narrower than we would have wanted. Still, its a win, and with a fairly depleted squad. Further injury news though, with Steve Callen limping off with what looked like quite a bad ankle injury. Fingers crossed its not as bad as it looked and we get him back soon, he will be a big miss. Despite missing a few games already he has been in fine form this season and is leading goalscorer by some way. But others will step up to the plate in his absence I’m sure, Nathan and Sparky are due a few goals.