Burradon 1
Rothbury 2
Northern
Football Alliance Division Two
Gaz
McCann’s cheeky penalty finish took Rothbury to within five points of the
Second Division championship at the first attempt – with five games remaining.
Put simply,
if the Coquetdalers can beat Seaton Sluice at Armstrong Park on Saturday, just
a point against title rivals Blyth FC the weekend after, assuming that the
Amateur Cup winners take maximum returns from their two games during that time,
would see them lift the silverware on home turf.
McCann
displayed ice-cool nerves with just 12 minutes to go as he jogged up and dinked
his spot-kick confidently down the middle with the keeper diving to his left and
looking on despairing from the deck as it rippled the net.
“It was
never in doubt,” said McCann.
“I never
thought I would miss – it’s just something I do. I have had goal runs in the
past but this is the most important one of my career,”
he admitted, after notching for the tenth time in nine games to stretch the
Red’s amazing unbeaten run to 24 matches.
“I think we have shown great character this
year with it being the first time Rothbury have been in the Alliance League. We
all just love to play football - we just have to win all our games left and
bring the trophy back home.”
“For what’s happened in the past couple of
weeks, all the lads have dug in deep for it and we’re all like brothers. The
fans deserve it – they’ve been belter all season.”
Rothbury
had to do it the hard way as they went behind at the basement side just a
minute after the break as Sam Hall shot home.
But the
Reds produced the perfect response and hit back almost instantly with Michael
Old flinging himself into a spectacular scorpion kick to restore parity, while McCann’s
late confidence from 12 yards put the Coquet men within touching distance of
the finish line.
To put
things into context, Rothbury, who were formed in 1876 and embraced the
Association game in 1881, won their first trophy in 1935/36 when they were
North Northumberland League champions. They did it again in 37/38. An
impressive haul of silver during the club’s most successful period in the 1970s
saw them apply unsuccessfully to join the Northern Alliance. When they took the
NNL title in 2009/10 it was their first League win since 1984/85, though they
did enjoy a good number of Cup successes.
The Hillmen
were in a difficult position two years ago when manager Dan Herron and coach
Tom Macpherson stepped up to steady the ship, and if the club can take Alliance
honours in their first season it would prove a massive moment in the long and
proud history of the Armstrong Park side.
The weight
of all that football heritage isn’t lost on gaffer Herron, who has respectfully
avoided mentioning the ‘Championship’ word all season and has sensibly taken it
one game at a time – a trait that he is determined to continue with in the
exciting run-in. If Rothbury do win the League, they’ll have done it with some
class as the boss was very complimentary of the opposition once again.
“Burradon
came flying out the blocks in the first 15/20 minutes, and had a real good go
at us,” he said.
“We were
reassuring the lads to calm down and weather the high press, and soon enough we
grew into the game through passing between the lines. They were set up well and
had good trigger points for the press - luckily we’ve got such a solid back 3
to deal with the pressure early on.”
“Fair play
to Burradon - you can see why they’ve taken points from the top six teams in
the last five weeks. We told the lads before the game to expect a difficult one
after looking at the form, and their attitudes were right yesterday, we by no
means turned up expecting an easy win, but it’s a win nevertheless,” he
continued.
Herron was
also delighted with the graft and commitment shown by his own players in
grinding out the three points.
“James ‘Mins’
Jackson was excellent in the back three at getting us to play on the deck after
the difficult period; he totally buys into the passing philosophy. James (Loughborough)
and Kyle (Smith) were very strong in midfield too. Kyla playing on with a knock
is testament to his character.”
“Thompa (Dan
Thompson) was excellent at stretching their back line and caused havoc with his
pace and trickery all day. Also Gar (McCann) deserves a mention, he whipped in
a great cross for Mic’s equaliser and obviously got the winner through, what he
insists, was an intended ‘Ozil’ penalty (deliberately kicking the ball into the
ground to bounce it over a keeper), and not just a miss kick!” he laughed.
“We’re
really just taking it game by game now, and can’t take anything for granted. I think hitting
back early was key to the game - it took the wind out of Burradon’s sails a bit.
Naturally they wanted to cause an upset - like every game from now until the
end of the season, they will all be cup finals for our opponents, and rightly
so.”
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