Rothbury 4 Gosforth Bohemians 2
Team Valley Carpets Combination Cup
In a game full of characters, they don’t come much bigger
than Rothbury’s Jack Angus.
The powerful veteran hit-man made his football reputation
scoring goals for the Reds – but he has been earning the plaudits lately after
sticking on the gloves and keeping them out at the other end as an emergency
goalkeeper.
The Coquetdalers were without a recognised stopper for the
second weekend in a row and the expert targetman stepped up to put in another
shift between the sticks.
Angus is a keen pigeon racer (they always beat him, mind!)
and has spent many Saturdays at his loft clocking home the birds since putting
his boots in the cupboard under the stairs.
He dusted them off to make a substitute appearance against
Wallsend Boys Club earlier this term, but has been pulling on the green shirt since
Paul Appleby split his eye in training, and joked: “Playing in nets? - it’s a
piece of cake!”
While the experienced forward has no intention on making the
switch in position a permanent one, he said he was just happy to do his bit for
the team.
“Goalkeeping is difficult if you’re not
used to it, but if you play there all the time I think it’s straight forward,”
continued Angus.
“It was disappointing to concede like we
did but I felt we were the best team all day –we just couldn’t link midfield to
forwards in the first half and got hit on the break twice. I did tell the gaffers
how good I thought I was, like,” he laughed after.
The last time these two clubs met at Armstrong Park, Michael
Old calmly fired in the Red’s second as they took the three points.
That was just a month ago. This time around, Old shot the Bohemians
ahead against his home town side to a stunned silence in the 13th minute
after making a sudden switch to the Benson Park outfit. The lead was doubled
just six minutes later as the Reds were caught cold again and Alex Polunin again
stretched Angus’s net.
Rothbury got back into the game with a great Gareth McCann
header from Tony Brown’s whipped over centre in the 35th minute, and
they were level in first half stoppage time when Sam Proudlock rose highest to
powerfully head home another Brown cross following a corner.
When the Bohs keeper found a James Loughborough drive too
hot to handle, McCann pounced to tuck away his second and put the Coquetdalers
in control in the 56th minute. Rothbury ensured themselves a spot in
the quarter-finals of the competition in the 78th minute as Alex Makin
put away a cheeky lob after a mix-up in the box when the ball just wouldn’t
fall for Chrissy Coe.
Armstrong Park boss Dan Herron felt his side were good value
for the victory and was delighted at the resilience shown to come back from two
early body blows.
“The Bohs goals were just from poor
defensive mistakes really, when we were dominating. We had loads of chances to
add to our tally, and could have had 7 or 8. We were really at it in possession too,
and well worth the win,” he said.
He also praised the contribution that
Angus made, dubbing him ‘safe hands’ and ‘a legend.’ Big
Jack seems unlikely to make it a treble of appearances at number 1, however, as
he is away for the end of the pigeon season at Newsham next weekend.
He’s always looked more comfortable
with a mealy hen cradled in those hands than a football anyway – and will be
hoping that the next time he’s called upon, it’ll be in a more familiar spot
staring down and psyching out a keeper at the other end.
Until then, it’s back to mucking out
the loft with a scraper to the soft coo of the settling birds, the fleeting
applause of wings and filling in the Up North Combine books as the racing comes
to an end for another year.
For while Angus would love to get his
hands on the Combination Cup silverware, you always get the impression that
lifting a trophy from Bourges would give him just as much – if not more - satisfaction.
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