Prudhoe Town FC v Stockton Town FC

This game kicked off half an hour late, because of an accident on the A1 it meant long tailbacks, with all the traffic leaving at Washington services and the Stockton players caught up in the chaos.

With the strip stuck in this chaos the team had to sit in the dressing room until it arrived.

Prudhoe were better prepared when the game eventually kicked off, they battled for every ball and did not let Stockton settle into our normal pattern of play.

This game was settled by two breakaway goals, the first after 10 minutes the Prudhoe goalkeeper Ryan Chambers cleared the ball to the half way line, Matthew Robinson and Tom Coulthard both went for the ball which went high into the air , this was chased down by Steven Forster who got to the ball just before Michael Arthur, Foster managing to steer the ball into the net.

Prudhoe were content to restrain Stockton which they did very well despite goalmouth scrambles Stockton could not get the ball through a resolute Prudhoe defence.

The closest Stockton came to scoring came after 54 minutes, Adam Nicholson's shot was saved by Chambers, from the resulting corner taken by Max Craggs there was  panic in the penalty area resulting in defender Rob Granley slicing his clearance into the air, the ball going towards his own goal, fortunately for the defender the ball bounced onto the top of the bar.

After 82 minutes Stockton were given a warning of Prudhoe's  intent when Foster won a long clearance, he tried to chip the ball over Michael Arthur in Stockton's goal but his effort also went over the bar.

Prudhoe tried the same move after 85 minutes this time it was Mark Bales who did the same thing only on the opposite side of the goal, when he chipped the ball over the keepers head, this time however the ball fell into the back of the net.

This was the first time this season Stockton have failed to score, that's 48 league and cup games, the 49th got off to a bad start with the travelling chaos, having to wait for the strips and a slow start to this game, but all credit to Prudhoe Town. Lets  hope we get things right on Monday.