Aycliffe edge Castle nail-biter
Sunday 31st December 2006
Division Three
Castle 3
Thompson, Gibbon, King
Aycliffe Village 5
Marram 2, Sproates, Addy, OG
AYCLIFFE VILLAGE scraped a nail-biting encounter with promotion rivals Castle after an entertaining game which proved an excellent advert for the league.
In difficult playing conditions, both sides put in sterling, hard-working performances – with Aycliffe just edging it thanks to two late goals, although Castle had their chances to win it late on.
Wayne Marram put the visitors 1-0 up, only for Paul Thompson to draw Castle level soon after.
A Castle defender then scored past his own goalkeeper to make it 2-1 to Aycliffe, only for the home side to bounce back again with a goal by Mark Gibbon.
Marram then netted his second of the game to nudge his side ahead for the third time, but they allowed Castle back in yet again as Wayne King grabbed Castle’s third before half-time.
Two-goal striker Marram then had to don the gloves for injured goalkeeper Mark Hannan and made two good saves at the other end to deny Castle near the end.
That allowed Shaun Sproates to grab a fourth for Aycliffe, before Marc Addy netted a last-minute fifth to seal the points after a nervy finish.
“It was a terrific game of football and really could have gone either way,” said Aycliffe Village boss Steve Moran. “I thought Castle played extremely well, both sides battled hard and the game was a credit to our division – I think you’d struggle to find a better game of football in the whole league this season. I’d also pick out midfielder Carl Cook as our star performer, he was excellent in the second half.”
Castle manager Peter Baker said: “If we’d taken our chances in the second half we could have won the game, but Aycliffe battled hard to the end and got the result. We were disappointed not to have taken anything from the game.
“But it’s the best we have played up to now this season, it was two good sides and, along with the two Fox and Hounds sides, the third division is turning out to be a really tough league.”
Elsewhere in Division Three last week, top-of-the-table Shildon Fox maintained their lead with a 3-1 win at home to the Southerne Club, thanks to a Ross Brown hat-trick. Lee Marshall scored Southerne’s goal.
Gareth Hodgson netted four goals for EBAC as his side ran out 6-4 winners over Horndale Celtic. Mark Owen and John Wheatley were also on target for EBAC.
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