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| Pic by club photographer Susan Aynsley |
Rothbury 1 Wallsend Boys Club 0
Santa’s not the only bearded bloke in a red and white kit who gets jolly this time of year, so the likes of the hirsute James Jackson, Al Makin and Thomas Hammond were all smiles after Rothbury weathered the storm to make it three wins on the bounce and move up into seventh spot in the table.
And while midfielder Kyle Smith normally sports
a bit of stubble for the Five o’clock shadow look, he was clean-shaven as he put
in the graft during a battling man-of-the-match performance with the Reds wrapping
up a festive win thanks to Chrissy Coe’s first half strike.
The final fixture before the Big Fella
visits is normally a lottery of who will turn up and in what state after the
joys of the notorious Black Eye Friday, so gaffer Danny Olson will have been pleasantly
surprised that the excesses of the works parties were curtailed this year.
It's no fun when the lager starts leaking
out of you after 20 minutes, and with visitors Wallsend Boys Club well up for it
and pouring forward at every opportunity, Olson’s players will have been
pleased that they were unexpectedly, disappointedly fresh for the game.
No brewery smells in the changing rooms, no
heaving in the toilets. Do they know it’s Christmas Time at all? Big Smith
certainly felt that a surface made heavy by water also added to the energy-sapping
of a hard 90 minutes that wouldn’t have been helped by hangovers.
“The team’s confidence is definitely
growing week by week,” he said.
“We did have to dig deep to get the 3
points and to be honest neither team played well - it was an ugly game to watch
I’d imagine, but the pitch didn’t help.”
Rothbury were celebrating in the 31st
minute when Greg Woodburn got to almost the bye-line and fired across the
keeper at his near post leaving Coe with a simple tap-in into the empty net for
what proved the winner.
“I thought Jack made some good saves and having
big Tommy Mac back is massive for us, he will definitely help some of the
younger players because of how vocal he is. Greg Woodburn for me was another
player who stood out today but that’s just because he couldn’t hit a barn door
with a banjo!” joked Smith.
“Danny’s style of play is starting to click,
although some of the players with half a brain can’t quite get their heads
around the set pieces. But hey 3 points is 3 points so we’ll take it and focus
on next week’s game and try to keep this winning streak going.”
The Boy’s Club drafted a couple of players
with Northern League experience ahead of the fixture with Scott McCarthy coming
in from Whickham and David Smith from Jarrow, so the Red’s narrow victory was
all the more impressive.
“We weren’t great but we dug in under what
was immense pressure at times. We move on to the next game,” admitted Olson,
who would certainly take not playing particularly well and winning above the
playing attractively but getting beaten that has happened during a number of
broken spells through 2020.
And what a stop-start year it has been. No
lining up the beers and sitting slumped in a bar stool in a paper hat with Wizzard
echoing in the background to celebrate. No laughing at someone bowking
around the back of the bins in a gaudy Rudolph jumper.
Keep your eyes on the skies. The magic can
still happen.
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