n excellent game for a neutral was one way of summing up our 3-3 draw at home against Newton Aycliffe. Six goals and some good football played by both teams, including a Tom Atkinson hat-trick.

It was our second consecutive Tuesday night home fixture, and once again the conditions were pretty much perfect for football—no breeze and a bit of dew on the pitch giving it some zip. We made a few changes for the Y&E: Ste Roberts started, with Larking on the bench, Sam Conway came in for Jack Dalton, and HST made a welcome return to the bench after injury.

Both sides had early chances, with Ste Roberts having a shot well saved and an Aycliffe header going over the bar. Tom was looking sharp and nearly scored after the Aycliffe keeper punched clear, but managed to block Tom’s follow-up shot on 9 minutes. On 17 minutes, Tom hit the back of the net: a nicely dinked ball from Harry Williams and a lovely finish from Tom inside the box made it 1-0. He nearly grabbed another soon after, but his effort from a Callum clearance was saved.

The visitors were looking sharp up front, attacking with pace down the wings. From an Aycliffe corner, Callum was beaten, but Joe Dalton was on hand to clear the ball off the line. We doubled our advantage on 41 minutes when the ball was played in to Tom on the left side of the box; some lovely footwork found him some space, and he buried it low down at the near post to put us 2-0 up.

The visitors got one back just before half-time. A loose pass from the back was cut out, and Andrew Nelson burst down their left-hand side, cut into the box, and finished well. A minute or so later, Aycliffe were level. The ball appeared to be out for a Y&E throw on our left-hand side, but it wasn’t given; the ball was switched over to our right side, and an Aycliffe cross to the far post was met by Sam Johnson to make it 2-2. It was a crazy couple of minutes for us, watching a two-goal lead disappear right before the break.

There was a shift in momentum at the start of the second half, with the visitors buoyed by their comeback and Y&E a bit shell-shocked. Aycliffe took the lead on 60 minutes—this time via a break down the right-hand side where Charlie Dawson cut inside and fired home to make it 3-2.

We made a few substitutions and started to work our way back into the game. On 77 minutes, we got our equaliser: a tangle resulted in a Y&E free-kick just inside the Aycliffe half, HST swung it to the far post, Cam headed it back across goal, and Tom managed to scramble it home to make it 3-3, completing his hat-trick.

Was there a chance for a winner? We finished the game strongly looking for one, having a penalty claim for handball waved away, but we couldn’t quite find that late goal. The match finished 3-3.

In the end, it was a decent point against probably the best team we’ve faced this season. They had plenty of pace up front and played some really good football—good luck to them for the rest of the campaign. As for us, it was a frustrating way to end the first half, but we showed good character in the second half to secure the point. Tom is back amongst the goals in a big way and was voted Man of the Match by match sponsor PF Developments after an excellent all-round display.