The Bedford Terrace Derby ended up in defeat for the Y&E as a seventh minute John Stephenson strike was enough to see Billingham Town take the victory.
A cold and wet Bedford Terrace on Friday night under the lights. You couldn’t get more Northern League than that. A good turnout of Y&E support there for the game, and for our normal match day volunteers it was all a bit surreal being able to enjoy a pre match pint in the clubhouse. There was a couple of changes to the starting XI with Jack Dalton dropping to the bench and Charlie Fixter coming in to midfield. This meant HST was at right wing back and Joe Dalton and CF7 in central midfield. The rest of the line up was unchanged from the convincing win vs Colne last Sunday. Our bench was probably the most experienced collection of subs that we’ve ever lined up with, Ste Roberts, Dan Jones, Pete Bulmer, Joe Hillerby and Jack Dalton. Answers on a postcard for that average age!
The weather wasn’t the best. The pitch was greasy, and it was continuing to rain as we kicked off. We started OK and had a really good chance inside the first 5minutes, Tom and Harry W both having efforts blocked and saved. We went a goal down on 7minutes, Charlie Watt with a good move down the left, cutting back and then crossing deep to the far post, where John Stephenson beat his man and struck the ball well across the goal to take the lead.
That goal gave the hosts plenty of confidence and they had the best of the opening 20mins or so. We weren’t able to get a foothold on the game and control possession. We had a couple of half chances a header saved from an HST corner on 19mins. At the other end Town had a header over the bar. There was a few tackles flying in and it was getting a little tetchy at times. The hosts had a couple of players in the book, HST joined them following a discussion on the laws of association football after Sam Conway had been fouled. It was getting scrappy, which as always suits the team in the lead rather than the team behind. There were a few more heated moments and most people agreed that if it carried on like it had been, then there would have been a sending off at some point in the game. We were having some joy from set pieces, and an HST corner just before half time was headed just wide by Ross Harrison. Half time 1-0. Far from a classic performance, we hadn’t got going and the early goal had given Town something to defend and look to catch us on the break for another.
Into the second half and we started better, but we had to rely on an excellent Leo slide tackle to stop a dangerous break. Ste came on for CF7 on 57 mins. Callum was also called on to make a low dive to his right hand side to tip a long distance effort that skipped along the deck, around the post. It was still pouring down. We made a double change with Cam and Leo replaced by Jack and Dan Jones. We had some more half chances, but the ball wasn’t falling for us and Billy Town were defending well. Callum was called in to action again with a superb reflex save to tip the ball over.
Just after the hour mark we had a couple of good chances, Tom through down the right and his effort was saved, Ste with the rebound, but his effort was blocked. The hosts were looking to slow things down at set pieces, which only adds to the frustration of the opposing team and fans. Every club does it, and it’s always annoying when you are on the end of it. With 15 to go, Hillers came on for Joe Dalton. A minute later, Harry W was through in the box but his effort was brilliantly saved by Briggs in the Town goal. We were having most of the possession now as we sought an equaliser.
Callum pulled off another superb stop at the other end as Town sought to catch us on the break. At the other end Harry had another shot well saved, Ste had one blocked and Tom Atkinson through on goal had his effort well saved. There was always a Billy Town player there to block and get the ball away. In to stoppage time and we had the ball in the net, but the ref had blown for a foul on the keeper. We kept pushing for a goal, but it didn’t come and the ref blew up for full time, which prompted some jubilant scenes from the home players and bench. Which maybe shows what a scalp beating the Y&E is for teams in our league.
Fair play to Billy Town. They scored early and were the better team 1st half. They defended well second half, always seeming to have a player to block or make the tackle and when we did get through their keeper was in fine form. Good luck to them for the rest of the season. We’ll see them again on the last game of the campaign in April.
It wasn’t one of our best performances. We never really got going and playing like we know we can do. We looked a bit sluggish early on got drawn in to a battle on the pitch at times. Despite not playing well, we still created a fair few decent chances, but we weren’t able to put any of them away. A couple of big games coming up in the next week with Newcastle university visiting us on Tuesday night followed by Chester le Street Town on Saturday. A chance to get back to winning ways. We’ll see you there
Howay the mighty Y&E
🔵⚪️🦅
#utyae