Stockton Town FC v Blyth Town

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Stockton Town went into this without Tom Coulthard but saw the return on Joe Scaife Wheatley and Chris Stockton to the starting line up from Wednesday evenings victory over Whickham. Stockton however found themselves a goal down within a minute of kick off, some hesitency in the Stockton midfield allowed Blyth Town possession down their right, Dale Pearson's ball found Robert Nolan free as he fired past Liam Jordan from 6 yards to put Blyth into the lead after just 52 seconds.

Back came Stockton Town and after 4 minutes, Fred Woodhouse picked the ball up in centre midfield, drove at the Blyth defence before sliding a perfect pass into Chris Stockton, Stocko raced into the box and fired a low left foot shot past Matthew Cook and into the far corner to make the score all square.

After this hectic start Blyth pulled their players back and played on the break, this gave Stockton more space and they created plenty of chances, but found the Blyth keeper Cook a hard nut to crack, he was the man of the match as he thwarted Stockton on several occasions. He made a number of outstanding saves from Stav Roberts, Fred Woodhouse and Chris Stockton and when he was beaten the post came to his rescue, Kallum Hannah hit the woodwork and Stephen Roberts fierce shot was parried by Cook, Kallum Hannah hit the post again with the follow up, as the first half finished 1-1.

The second half continued in the same vane, Hannah one on one with Cook but the keeper stood firm to make a fine save. Next was Fred Woodhouse who let go from 25 yards but again Cook pulled off a fine save tipping the ball over the bar and Stephen Roberts for the second time found Cook unbeatable.

Stockton kept up the pressure but Matthew Garbutt went into a tackle with defender Matthew Tumilty, the defender jumped up and pushed Garbutt after 80 minutes, this resulted in a melee with several players, after it settled down referee Daniel Mahmodshahi showed the defender a yellow card, and Garbutt a red,  so Stockton Town had to settle for a draw, but more importantly they have kept the unbeaten start to the season going.