Report

Consett began their pre-season preparations with a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of a Stockton Town side who will be playing a division above them this season.

Tony Fawcett’s starting XI contained just five of the players who started the final game of last season, with another on the bench.

Four summer signings were given a first outing, with two more among the subs, and the squad contained five trialists. Six players for a variety of reasons.

Stockton’s starting XI included one ex-Consett player, Josh Baggs, at left-back, and two others, Arjun Purewal and Michael Sweet, among their subs,

Consett had the first chance after nine minutes when Jake Jensen’s shot was saved at the expense of a corner by Nathan Harker after the midfielder played a neat one-two.

From the resulting corner Harker made another save, tipping the ball onto the crossbar as it threatened to drop straight in.

At the other end Kevin Hayes cut inside before firing over the bar, and Elliott Beddow had two headed chances, putting both just wide.

Half-time: Consett 0 Stockton 0

Both sides made a handful of changes for the second half, which included Consett bringing on Ben Ramsey and Stockton introducing Purewal and Sweet.

The opening goal came in the 57th minute when an excellent cross from the left was headed in by teenage striker Jack Spears.

Nine minutes later the lively Spears headed home again from point-blank range, but this time he was flagged offside.

Consett then had their best spell of the game, and Ramsey, who scored twice against Stockton on Easter Monday, curled a shot just wide from outside the box.

Ramsey was then denied twice in the space of a minute by Stockton’s trialist goalkeeper, who beat out two well-struck efforts.

But Stockton made it 2-0 in the 75th minute when Baggs’ superb diagonal long ball picked out the run of their trialist No 14, who finished past Consett’s trialist keeper.

CONSETT: 1 James Anderson (sub Trialist C 46), 2 Jordan Patterson, 3 Trialist A (sub Isaac Walker 60), 4 Calvin Smith, 5 Ryan McKinnon (sub Harvey Rudd 46), 6 Dan Capewell (captain) (sub Ryan McKinnon 87), 7 James McGeorge (sub Trialist E 46), 8 Jake Jensen (sub Wil Shaw 53), 9 Adam Lennox (sub Stephen Hall 46), 10 Wil Shaw (sub Ben Ramsey 46), 11 Trialist B (sub Jack Caygill 46). Sub not used: Trialist D (GK).

STOCKTON TOWN: 1 Nathan Harker, 2 Lewis King, 3 Josh Baggs, 4 Lewis Leech, 5 Adam Nicholson (captain), 6 Tom Coulthard, 7 Kevin Hayes, 8 Glen Butterworth, 9 Michael Fowler, 10 Cameron Painter, 11 Elliott Beddow. Subs: Trialist A (GK), Trialist B, Trialist C, Trialist D, Arjun Purewal, Owen Gallacher, Jack Spears, Michael Sweet.

ATTENDANCE: 171.