Consett increased their lead at the top of the Northern League table to seven points on this day in 2008, with a comfortable win over Ashington in a midweek match at Belle Vue Park.
Continue reading “On this day: 26 November 2008 – Emmo’s hot streak continues as Consett beat Ashington”
Consett won the battle of the Northern League’s top two on Durham City’s plastic pitch to make FA Vase progress on this day 13 years ago.
Continue reading “On this day: 17 November 2007 – Moffat is too hot to handle as Consett blow away Durham in FA Vase thriller”
A Consett side missing five regulars pulled off an excellent win at the home of the Northern League’s third-placed side, despite being reduced to 10 men, on this day in 2009.
As well as long-term absentees David Gordon and David Duke, manager Kenny Lindoe was unable to call on injured skipper Carl Piecha, or the unavailable Chris Scott or Jonjo Dickman for the Northern League 1st Division game at Woodhorn Lane.
He still fielded a strong starting XI, with three changes from the previous game, a 2-2 draw with Morpeth. Goalkeeper Danny Staples had served his suspension for being sent off against Bishop Auckland the previous month, David Scorer was restored at centre-half, and Andrew Burton returned at left-back, though the bench was a little thin.
With just a couple of minutes gone, some excellent interplay down the left by Mattie Moffat and David Pounder saw Prof’s delicious touch wrongfoot a defender and put Steven Johnson through. But Stevie delayed for just long enough for the Colliers to regroup and prevent him getting a shot away.
A quick throw-in by Steven Huggins to Pounder gave the Steelmen another opportunity when he found stand-in skipper Gary Ormston, whose ball to Moffat was cracked just over the bar.
After some tentative opening exchanges, it took 15 minutes for either side to seriously trouble the other’s goal, and when it came it was Ashington who came within a whisker of opening the scoring. They broke down the right, and a ball pinged to the back post saw Keith Douglas connect sweetly with the ball at full stretch, only to see his shot cannon off the crossbar, with the goalkeeper beaten.
Moffat tried his luck from 25 yards after winning the ball from the centre-half, but, to the jeers of the vociferous home fans, it flew high and wide.
A Steven Huggins corner caused some mild panic in the Ashington box after keeper Karl Dryden came for it, flapped and missed, but Johnson was unable to take advantage, and the danger was cleared.
Scorer headed over from a corner and Johnson was unable to pick anyone out with a hard, low cross across the face of the goal after Moffat and Ormston combined well, as Consett began to take control.
They really should have scored when they were awarded a free-kick for a foul on Ormston as he surged towards the box. Burton took the kick quickly after spotting Moffat making a run to the back post, but the striker couldn’t keep his shot from six yards down.
On the stroke of half-time Moffat had an even better chance when Ashington only half-cleared a corner, and Pounder lobbed the ball back into the danger area. It was kept alive by Ormston, and Moffat found himself with a free header from six yards out, which he put straight at Dryden.
Half-time: Ashington 0 Consett 0
Within two minutes of the restart Moffat had another chance, latching onto a loose ball and trying to prod it home when power would surely have produced a goal. Moffat put in another good shift, and on another day, with a few more games under his belt, would have had a hat-trick.
Andrew Cuthbertson then placed a shot agonisingly wide of the right-hand post after a flowing Consett move. But when the deadlock was broken on 51 minutes it was Ashington who scored, completely against the run of play.
Former Consett winger David Colvin advanced down the left and sent in a hard, low cross, which was met a few yards out by Andrew Burton. Unfortunately, the pace on the ball was such that he was unable to steer it away from goal, and only succeeded in putting through his own net.
Four minutes later things went from bad to worse for the Steelmen. Centre-back Paul Collins handled a through ball 25 yards out, and the referee decided he had prevented a goalscoring opportunity, and showed him a straight red card, which seemed a little harsh to say the least.
Most of the travelling supporters probably feared the worst, but after a reshuffle which saw Burton go to right-back, Michael Coulthard come into the middle and Pounder drop to left-back, Consett took the game by the scruff of the neck.
On 58 minutes captain-for-the-day Gary Ormston capped an industrious display by heading home Huggins’ corner from six yards out, taking him to 10 goals for the season.
And on 67 minutes Steven Huggins put Consett in front with a superb free-kick curled over the wall from just outside the box after the referee had somewhat generously decided that Moffat was impeded.
With something to hold onto, Lindoe withdrew Johnson and brought Gavin Parkin on to shore up the midfield, but it was still the Steelmen who looked more likely to get the next goal.
Another foul on Moffat just outside the box gave Huggins a free-kick in a similar position to the one he scored from, but this time the keeper comfortably caught his effort round the wall, low to his left. And Parkin came close to opening his account for the club with a rising shot from 20 yards which just cleared the bar.
In the 86th minute, the referee could quite easily have made it 10-a-side when Colliers defender Iain Nickalls pulled back Moffat after the forward knocked the ball past him on the halfway line, but he chose to show a yellow card instead of red.
Tremendous last-ditch tackles by Nickalls and Paul Dunn then halted Moffat as through balls twice left him one-on-one with the last defender as Consett looked for a clincher.
Ashington rarely threatened in the second half, though one ball flashed across the face of goal by substitute Josh Race had Staples scrambling, and the keeper then had to be at his best to keep out a powerful injury-time drive from the same player.
The game ended controversially, when Burton needed lengthy treatment and had to be substituted after being knocked out by what appeared to be a flailing elbow, but again the referee only showed Scott Blandford a yellow card when the offence might have merited a different colour.
When the final whistle went it was a fully deserved three points against a side who were just starting to believe they had an outside chance of the championship, and would eventually go on to finish 6th – their best in 29 years.
Consett extended their unbeaten run in the Arngrove Northern League 1st Division to 13 games and in the process climbed to the top of the table with a 4-2 win at struggling West Allotment Celtic on this day in 2007.
Manager Kenny Lindoe made three changes to the side that relinquished its grip on the Durham Challenge Cup in a home defeat by local rivals Tow Law three days earlier. Craig Turns returned in goal, Carl Piecha to the defence and Gary Ormston to midfield, with James Platten, Rob Story and John Ewart making way for them. The line-ups for both sides included a Patterson, a Johnson and a Brown!
The game was effectively over within 20 minutes, by which time The Steelmen were 3-0 up. On 12 minutes they worked a short corner to David Pounder who chipped a delicate cross into Carl Piecha, who headed home,
Two minutes later Mattie Moffat was fouled on the edge of the area and Steven Brown fired the free-kick round the wall and in off the post to double Consett’s lead.
Before the home side could do anything about their predicament they found themselves three down as a reverse ball from Moffat set Steven Johnson in the clear with the Celtic defence claiming in vain for offside. The young striker slotted the ball coolly past home keeper Morton for his 19th goal of the season.
The home side, to their credit, refused to throw in the towel and somehow managed to make a contest of the remaining 70 minutes. Consett keeper Craig Turns was forced to make a point-blank save from Tom Vickers when he responded quickest to a ball played into the area by Andy Johnson.
Twelve minutes before the break Steven Brown played a one-two with Gary Ormston and fired the return pass into the side netting, but there was to be no further addition to the scoring in the first half.
A harsh penalty six minutes after the interval gave the home side a lifeline. Andy Hay cut inside and appeared to slip in the process, however the referee deemed he had been tripped by Mark Gaffney and Keith Douglas sent Turns the wrong way from the spot.
Piecha almost struck back three minutes later, shooting over from Steven Johnson’s cross. However the young defender scored his second of the game on the hour mark to restore Consett’s three-goal lead. After a lengthy stoppage following Ormston’s collision with the perimeter fence, David Pounder’s corner picked out Piecha, whose looping header found the net despite the attempts of a defender on the line to head away.
Consett always looked likely to score more and ought to have done on 74 minutes when Moffat outmuscled a defender to leave three blue shirts against two defenders. Moffat rolled the ball to his strike partner Johnson, but his shot was straight at Morton.
Three minutes later a brilliant run down the wing from Ormston ended with a cross to Moffat, but it was just too low for the number 9 to meet with his head and the ball rolled to safety.
The home wouldn’t give up, however, and after Ben Dawson had volleyed a poor clearance back towards goal but just off target, Celtic made it 4-2 with three minutes remaining. Douglas delivered a perfect free-kick from wide right and the unmarked Tom Vickers headed home.
Steven Johnson and Ormston both went close for Consett in the closing stages, while at the other end they were fortunate to survive an incredible goalmouth scramble deep into stoppage time. In the end though the Steelmen were good value for their win, and with Durham inactive, they went to the top of the league for the first time this season.
West Allotment Celtic: 1 Morton, 2 Douglas, 3 D Patterson (sub Mitchison 82), 4 Hughes, 5 A Brown, 6 Locker, 7 A Johnson, 8 Dawson, 9 Hay (sub Houlsby 69), 10 Vickers, 11 York (sub Richardson 60).
Consett: 1 Craig Turns, 2 Michael Coulthard, 3 Mark Gaffney, 4 Mark Patterson (sub John Clark 72), 5 Carl Piecha (sub Rob Story 77), 6 Craig Robson, 7 Gary Ormston, 8 Steven Brown (sub Davey Robson 86), 9 Mattie Moffat, 10 Steven Johnson, 11 David Pounder.
Consett showed both sides of their Jekyll and Hyde character in a game against Whitley Bay in this day back in 2008.
The Steelmen eventually ran out comfortable 4-1 winners against a Seasiders side who would end the season by scuppering Consett’s title hopes – read more about that here – and recording the first of three consecutive FA Vase triumphs.
When this game took place at Belle Vue Park on Saturday 8 November, Consett were 2nd in the skilltrainingltd Northern League Division One, having been knocked off the top after losing at Chester-le-Street the week before. Whitley Bay were 11th.
Even within this 90 minutes, Consett’s following were treated to a bit of everything, as for the first half an hour they were a distant second best to their visitors. However, for the rest of the game the performance was as good as the previous week’s defeat at Chester Moor Park had been poor.
Whitley had by far the better of the opening exchanges, threatening as early as the sixth minute when Paul Chow’s low shot forced Consett keeper Paul Gilmore into a good save. Gilmore saved the Steelmen again four minutes later, coming out save with his feet from Bruce Hogg who was left clean through when Carl Piecha missed an attempted clearance.
Adam Emson had shot wide under pressure in Consett’s only serious attack of the first third of the game, but the Steelmen were soon under pressure again, with David Coulson – who would go on to have a brief spell at the club a few years later – heading a left-wing corner over the bar.
The inevitable breakthrough came for the Bay on 25 minutes. After Chow saw a shot blocked and loop up into the air, Chris Fawcett held off his marker to lay the ball off to Bruce Hogg, who hammered it into roof of the net.
It was almost 2-0 a couple of minutes later when Paul Robinson’s ball over the top released Chow, but Gilmore came out smartly to tackle the ever-dangerous striker.
Completely against the run of play, Consett found themselves level in the 36th minute. David Pounder’s right-wing corner dropped in the six yard box and after a goalmouth scramble Carl Piecha poked the ball home to make it 1-1.
The goal acted like an off switch for Whitley, who were simply never in the game thereafter. Andy Cuthbertson sent in a fine cross which Steven Johnson headed at Bay keeper Terry Burke, and then two minutes before half-time Consett took the lead. Jonjo Dickman won an important challenge in the Bay penalty area and the ball broke kindly to Emson, who fired home from eight yards.
Emson should have added another on the stroke of half time when he skinned Darren Timmons and bore down on goal, but Burke stopped Emmo’s effort with his legs.
Half-time: Consett 2 Whitley Bay 1
Burke was much the busier of the two keepers in the second half but could only watch thankfully as Emson’s glancing header from Pounder’s wicked inswinging corner flashed wide.
The Steelmen had a scare just before the hour mark when a right-wing corner was only half cleared as far as Chris Fawcett, whose volley arrived at an awkward height, forcing Gilmore to somehow fumble the ball round the post.
Consett spent much of their time soaking up pressure from their visitors and then hitting them with dangerous attacks, and one such situation midway through the second half resulted in Emson and Johnson up against just one defender, however the attack ended with Johnson shooting harmlessly at Burke.
Another lethal Pounder inswinger almost found the net directly, but Burke tipped it over the bar. Two minutes later though, Consett’s third finally arrived as a result of another counter-attack.
Johnson collected the ball then sent an excellent defence-splitting pass through to the unmarked Emson, who took his chance first time and make no mistake.
This stirred Bay out of their slumbers and on 77 minutes Chris Moore – who would later play for and manage Consett – embarked on a brilliant run past five defenders, only to see Gilmore cut out his cross. Five minutes later substitute Lee Kerr fired in a shot, but Chow deflected it over the bar from in front of goal.
Consett added their fourth in the last minute of normal time. Whitley threw everyone up for a corner, but Emson’s clearance set Johnson on a quick breakaway, and despite being on his own he beat a defender and let fly with a shot that had enough pace to cross the line despite Burke getting both hands to the ball.
There was still time for Bay’s Fawcett and Consett’s Johnson to be denied in one on ones, but there was no further scoring and the Steelmen stormed back to the top of the Northern League with this impressive win.
Full-time: Consett 4 Whitley Bay 1
Consett: 1 Paul Gilmore, 2 Karl Baston, 3 Michael Coulthard, 4 Jonjo Dickman, 5 Carl Piecha, 6 Craig Robson, 7 Chris Scott (sub David Scorer 84), 8 Andrew Cuthbertson, 9 Adam Emson, 10 Steven Johnson, 11 David Pounder. Subs not used: Paul Curry, James Platten, Carl Heiniger, Mattie Moffat.
Whitley Bay: 1 Terry Burke, 2 Darren Timmons, 3 Chris Reid (sub Leon Ryan 46), 4 Craig McFarlane, 5 David Coulson, 6 Bruce Hogg (sub Lee Kerr 60), 7 Chris Moore, 8 Damon Robson, 9 Chris Fawcett, 10 Paul Chow, 11 Paul Robinson (sub Mark Taylor 48). Subs not used: Phil Bell, Darren Reay.
