Newton Aycliffe FC v Jarrow Roofing

Jarrow Roofing fell to defeat for the first time in eleven games as a controversial penalty after 32 minutes settled the match in favour of Newton Aycliffe. 
Yet while fingers were pointed at an inconsistent refereeing performance, Roofing wasted two glorious chances in the first half to race out of sight with poor finishing on both occasions ultimately coming back to haunt the Roofers.
First Karl McMann was put through one-on-one with Barry Poskett within the first ten minutes, but the ‘keeper was left with a simple gather to make after the stand-in forward froze to the spot and took too long to make his decision as to what to do.
Then Lewy Teasdale was put in on goal yet fired straight at the ‘keeper on one of the few occasions he was completely free of the attention of a defence that was largely left to deal with his threat after his striking partner spent large parts of the game struggling to make an impact.
Roofing went into the game decimated by injury, illness and unavailability while manager Richie McLoughlin was missing due to illness himself. Top scorer John Campbell pulled out of the game not long before the team were due to travel leaving Ian Davison with little to do with only eleven players available, excluding himself.
Tempers often threatened to spill over as Roofing reacted to a number of hard challenges that had the referee wondering what to do, yet one of the softest tackles of the day drew a penalty that the assistant referee gave, despite the main match official being well placed and initially awarding a goalkick.
Stuart Banks converted the resultant penalty with ease, yet with anger still simmering, Roofing were stunned when a shove on Alex White inside the box brought only an Aycliffe goalkick.
The game spiralled out of control as both sides contested decisions that baffled them, yet during this, Poskett’s goal led a charmed life with Roofing forcing play forward and the ‘keeper making a number of saves, many of which he knew little about having found himself simply in the right place to collect a ricochet or the ball ending up straight at him.
Aycliffe were dangerous on the counter-attack and went close to grabbing a second when first Alan Greenan made a double save, being lucky on the second block, and then a Banks whipped cross falling just beyond his post.
After a delayed start to the second half with the officials emerging late from their dressing room after a meeting with Newton Aycliffe’s manager, and the Roofing team having spent nine minutes on the field waiting for the half to commence, the final whistle of the game was met with further bafflement with the referee awarding a number of time-wasting instances, a head injury and three substitutions with less than two minutes of added-on time with Roofing camped out in the Aycliffe half of the field. That final act brought an end to Roofing’s unbeaten run that lasted ten games while continuing the host’s mini-revival under new manager Peter Dixon.