Brighouse Town 2, Newton Aycliffe 1
By Ryan Livingston
Newton Aycliffe were unlucky not to gain a point at Brighouse, where two quick goals in the second half were their undoing in West Yorkshire.
A game played in constant rain, Aycliffe worked hard in the first half. Cieran Jackson was arguably the biggest handful for Brighouse defenders to deal with.
Brighouse came close with attacks of their own, Jack Normanton fired wide several times and Mohammad Qasim used use his pace to consistently cause Aycliffe trouble.
Despite the end-to-end nature, both teams seemed to struggle to make either keeper work, and the first half ended with the biggest chance up to that point, Will Callighan with a pacey run and low shot that was parried away by Daniel Cameron, and the resulting corner being swiftly cleared by a Marc Costello header, only for it to land the way of Normanton who blazed it far and wide.
Brighouse started the second half stronger, Callighan went down the wing on a counter attack and passed the ball to Normanton who found himself close on goal but was judged offside.
Brighouse kept applying pressure and eventually capitalised, Normanton crossed the ball over several Aycliffe defenders to Qasim who fired a low shot into the net to make it 1-0.
It didn’t take long for the home side to double their lead, this time it was Normanton in a close range position to score, receiving a cross from his own half, he walked the ball past Cameron to make it 2-0.
Brighouse began to sit back, and Aycliffe’s biggest chance came via Jackson. After receiving a perfectly weighted pass from Marc Costello, Jackson fired a shot from close range, the ball almost seemed to go in, but just barely hit the post to rebound back out.
In keeping with the games’ end-to-end nature, it didn’t take long for Brighouse to retaliate.
Considering how back and forth the contest was, and how much Aycliffe grafted, it wouldn’t have been a true reflection of the game had they not scored.
Liam Adamson got onto a header from Jake Petitjean, to curl the ball in from close range to make it 2-1.
Sadly, it was just too late for Aycliffe to mount a counter attack and Brighouse sat back and defended well for victory.
Aycliffe return to the SecuriCorp Stadium, on Friday (October 6, 7.45pm kick-off). High flyers Hebburn Town are the visitors to Moore Lane. That game is then followed by a trip to Esh Winning on Tuesday, October 10, for a Durham Challenge Cup fixture.
