Heaton Stannington A 5-2 Blyth Town u23

Neville Cowey Cup Group 1

Wednesday 21 April 2021

Heaton Stann A made it 4 wins from 4 matches, but had to battle hard to come back from being two down inside 26 minutes, to maintain their attempt to finish in the top two to qualify for a Semi Final match. As the result from Morpeth’s home game came in later on, surprise, surprise, Morpeth had lost 1-2 to Newbiggin Central, so Stann went to the top of the Table. That means a win or a draw (superior goal difference) on Saturday at Cullercoats guarantees Stann a SF place.

First half goals from Harry Poole and Zak Munir, and second half goals from Munir (again), Layton Bruce and Kye Jones gave them the three points. 

Stann did not start well, conceding three free kicks and a strong Blyth shout for a penalty in the first six minutes. Then on 19 minutes, Blyth centre back Miikael Puusepp went up for a corner, ball falling to his feet, and he jinked around two defenders and fired in 0-1

7 minutes later and Blyth added a second when a poor tackle from Callum Doyle was penalised, and captain Martyn Hepple scored from the penalty kick, sending Aidan Ripken the wrong way.0-2

Stann fought back and reduced the arrears on 32 minutes, with Munir’s cross from the right giving Poole the chance, and he headed strongly into the net. 1-2

Christopher Walker fired inches wide from a well worked free kick, and then brought out a good save from Alexander Cockburn.  James Harper hit the post, with Walker following up, was well tackled to deny him a shot on an open goal.

Two minutes before the break Stann equalised with good work from Walker setting up Munir whose shot on the turn flew into the corner of the net. 2-2. Kevin Carr said after the match, “Those two timely goals from us got us back into the game, demoralised them a bit and our confidence was raised.”

Harper opened the second half with a shot well saved by Cockburn, but went ahead on 61 minutes when Harper again hit the post (a hat trick of misses from him) but Munir drove in from close range. 3-2,  One minute later Stann made it 4-2 with substitute Layton Bruce robbing a Blyth midfielder and ran on and drove a low shot inside the post giving Cockburn no chance. Two goals in a minute had swung the game strongly in Stann’s favour, confidence was high and but for Cockburn they might have got a hatful more. He made a superb double save to deny Munir (a hat trick) and Daniel Forster, and then the crossbar denied substitute Kye Jones a goal.

Stann wrapped up the scoring on 85 minutes with Bruce feeding Jones on the right flank, he raced forward cutting inside and unleashed a drive across the goal and into the far corner of the net. 5-2

A good work out for Stann with some good and needy lessons learnt from this game, and will need to start better on Saturday at Cullercoats, and in their remaining games to lift the trophy.

Stann: Ripken; Doyle (Harris); Forster; Westphal, Hall; Dunne; Riley; Walker (Jones); Poole; Harper (Bailey); Da Costa (Bruce); Munir,   Sub not used: Adriano Anjos

Brian Pratt