Newcastle Benfield vs Chester-Le-Street

Saturday 29th December 2007

This was the first match under the new management team of Paddy Atkinson, Tom Wade and goalkeeping coach Ian Archibold after the shock resignation of previous manager Paul Baker.

 The match started off well for Benfield with a good few attacks especially down the left wing area with both Mark Rasmussen and Adam Scope prominent in these positions. It came as no surprise that the Benfield goal came from that area when in the 21st minute of the match Adam Scope crossed and although the Chester keeper came to try to collect it he fumbled the ball and IAN GRAHAM was on the spot to put the ball in the net from 6 yards for the first goal of the game.

 Play was pretty even but of the two teams it was always Benfield who looked the likely to score and this nearly happened in the 39th minute when another cross from the left by Scope ended with a great save by the Chester goalkeeper from a header by his own player which resulted in a corner.

 The second half was only 2 minutes old when great play down the Benfield right wing by Paul Antony crossed to Mark Sheeran and from 10 yards put this good chance over the crossbar. Play was again fairly even with the young Chester side passing well but not looking like scoring until the 79th minute when Jonathon Wightman curled a 25 yard shot towards the top corner but the Benfield keeper Andrew Grainger pulled off a spectacular save pushing it over for a corner to Chester.

 Chester-le –Street nearly equalized in the 88th minute when Jonny Brown paused thinking that an opposition player was offside and when the low cross came in Grainger again made a fine save pushing it away from the danger area and eventually cleared.

The final whistle came with Benfield winning 1-0 with a battling performance against a side that had gone 10 matches undefeated and lets hope that this is the start of a winning spell.