Newton Aycliffe 0, Northallerton Town 2
By Dave Stickland
Newton Aycliffe went out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle, losing 2-0 at home to Northallerton Town.
They started positively, and had Northallerton pinned in their own half for most of the first half hour.
Dean Thexton put a header wide five minutes in, and Kevin Carr had a low shot saved by Dawson in the Northallerton goal. Johnson Ballan made great run, dribbling past four players before putting his shot over the bar.
Northallerton had their first chance on the half hour, but Graeme Pickering in the Aycliffe goal made a good save. A minute later Proctor missed a good chance for the visitors when he headed wide.
Aycliffe came back but still couldn’t keep their shots down, as Barnes, Carr and Thexton all shot over the bar from good positions.
Northallerton took the lead on 58 minutes when a very long kick from their keeper led to a mix-up in the Aycliffe defence, and Hudson snook in for a gift of a goal.
Aycliffe didn’t recover from that shock, and never looked like breaking down the packed Northallerton defence after that. To make matters worse, the visitors broke out and counterattacked in injury time, with Blackburn getting their second goal, leaving Aycliffe to regret their wayward shooting.
Next match is away to Thornaby on Tuesday (August 20, 7.30pm). The next home game is against Sunderland RCA on Saturday (August 24, 3pm).
