Newton Aycliffe 4, Grantham Town 1
By Ryan Livingston
Newton Aycliffe capped off a brilliant week by beating Belper 4-3 last week and Grantham Town 4-1 on Saturday.
The result would have felt sweet for the home side, as Aycliffe were arguably the better side in their narrow 3-2 defeat at Grantham in September.
Even in comparison to other teams Aycliffe have played this season, Grantham offered extremely little of note throughout.
In the 11th minute, Ethan Wood passed just inside the box to Liam Adamson, who fired a sweet finish over the goalkeeper, even that early in the game, you could feel an Aycliffe goal had been coming.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the game was the fact Grantham went into the second half just 1-0 down.
As Aycliffe consistently put pressure on their defenders who struggled to deal with the pace of Liam Adamson and Cole Kiernan. Kiernan was especially unlucky to not score several times in the game.
On the defending side of things, the few times Grantham did come forward, they gave Nathan Fisher very little to worry about.
In the second half, Aycliffe still had more possession and much better chances.
Liam Adamson’s shot just barely hit the bar and went over in early in the second half.
After some more pressure, Jack Naylor ran into the box and gently passed to Cieran Jackson who scored from a tight angle.
Grantham’s most notable chance at this point came from Rodrigo Goncalves, but all he could do was tap the ball straight into the hands of Fisher.
To make it a decisive Aycliffe win, Wayne Whitfield’s pass found Jack Raper who outpaced Grantham’s sluggish defense to make it 3-0.
Grantham grabbed a consolation against the run of play, Rodrigo Goncalves found the foot of Ifyanyi Ofoegbu to score.
But Aycliffe immediately retaliated and Liam Adamson’s pacey run and precise finish bamboozled everyone in the Grantham box to make it 4-1 and cap off a stellar home performance.
The result moved Aycliffe up to 13th in the Northern Premier League East Division, on 19 points.
They now face two away trips, Winterton Rangers in Lincolnshire on Saturday (December 2) followed on Tuesday night by the rearranged trip to Pontefract Collieries.
• The above picture, by Yvonne Wood, shows Jake Petitjean getting his head to the ball in Saturday’s win against Grantham Town.
