LEADERS HELD BUT STILL TOP THE TABLE

Rothbury 2 Willington Quay Saints 2

Northern Football Alliance

Team Valley Carpets Division Two

Rothbury piled on the late pressure but couldn’t force a winner after coming from behind twice against Saints.

The point kept the Coquetdalers on top of Division Two, albeit on goal difference, from Cramlington United and Whitley Bay Sporting, though the Reds have games in hand.

Scorer Alex Laviers, pic by Ian Glendinning

 Boss Dan Herron was disappointed with the first half display as the Hillmen were slow out of the blocks, but had no real complaints about the result.

“We were very poor in the first half and lacked quality and movement, though Willington’s tactics and shape made it hard too,” he admitted.

“The only thing of real class in the first was Kyle Smith’s quality sweeping through ball to Greg Woodburn, whose first touch was immense. Kyle and Sam Proudlock were the stand out players in the first half, and Al Laviers in the second. But other than that we lacked movement and looked very rigid in the opening period,” he said.

Ross Thirlaway squared across the box for Dylan Adamson to ram in the opener for the visitors but Rothbury hit back when Woodburn ran onto Smith’s perfectly-weighted through ball and slammed home past the advancing keeper.

Woodburn was delighted to get himself back on the scoresheet and revealed that the players in the dressing room afterwards were a bit disappointed not to have taken full advantage of the chances they had created.

“It was a good game for the neutral with bags of chances for both teams - we were backed by a big crowd yet again which is always a bonus as it gets you fired up for the match,” said Woodburn.

“It felt good to be back on the score-sheet after a few hit and miss games, but I can’t take all the credit as Kyle played a 50 yard through ball to leave me with a bread and butter finish! I thought Kyle and Mins (James Jackson) in the middle were key to the hard-earned point, with Mins dropping deep and spraying the passes and dictating the play and Kyle with his work rate and leadership qualities which are always a massive up-lifter,” he continued

“I think in the end a draw was a fair point. Northern Alliance football has given the village a huge boost. At the start of last year the team was one game away from folding as we had to scrape a team every week and to be where we are now in such a short space of team is amazing - all the credit goes to Dan and Tom Macpherson for turning the club on its head.”

Herron felt that the changes that the side made at the break helped to boost the performance of the League leaders and with a bit of luck they could have taken all three points.

“We made a couple of changes at half time and a change in formation made us look a lot more dangerous, and obviously they tired and the shape got a bit more open,” he said.

“We had loads of chances in the second half - Al had a few really good ones that he couldn’t convert but took the hardest of them all and whipped one in the top corner from outside the box!” laughed Herron.

“We had an absolute barrage of corners in the second half - I think it was at least six which were right on top of the keeper, but it just wouldn’t go in. The deliveries from Mins were so dangerous, but we couldn’t get the winner. Mind, Willington are a decent side and battled well for the point, take nothing away from them.”

Rothbury found themselves behind again when Sean Conway let fly from 25 yards and it crashed into the top corner. The Reds dusted themselves down and leveled things up for a second time, however, as sub Alex Laviers cut inside from the left wing and picked his spot to curl a beauty from the edge of the box into the back of the net.

“The ball was played down the line to me and the defender let me cut in onto my stronger side. I had a look up and not much was on so I thought I’ll just hit it and thankfully it went in,” said Laviers.

“I was happy to score after missing a couple of good chances myself. I think the lads showed a lot of fighting spirit to comeback and grab a point - it shows how much everyone wants to win. I think we probably deserved a win due to the amount of chances we created and how much pressure they were under for they last 20-25 minutes, but they were a good team who were organised, so a point isn’t too bad.”

MATCH SPONSOR: PAPA G'S PIZZA, ROTHBURY.