Newton Aycliffe 2, Dunston 5
By Ryan Livingston
Newton Aycliffe’s dreams of reaching the Northern Premier League Division East play-offs were dashed when they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Dunston UTS in their penultimate game of the season.
The two teams had played each other on Easter Monday a few weeks prior, but the game was abandoned at half-time due to worsening weather.
The first goal of the evening came when Liam Adamson deftly passed the ball to Ethan Wood and Wood would pass back to Adamson.
Adamson was initially dispossessed by Phil Turnbull but Turnbull couldn’t hold the ball and was pickpocketed by Liam Jarvie who easily fired it home to make it a 1-0 lead for Aycliffe in just the 16th minute
Dunston’s defence remained composed however and it became challenging for Aycliffe to get too many more chances.
Dunston’s next attack saw them obtain the equaliser when Michael Pearson crossed it to David Robson who laid the perfect pass to Richard Coulson to allow him to finish into the bottom left corner.
Dunston now firmly had momentum, and their second came in the 42nd minute when Chris McDonald’s cross found David Robson’s head and he headed in from very close range.
The first half ended 2-1, and the second half was mostly the same, with a plethora of Aycliffe attacks getting snuffed out by Dunston’s defenders.
The third goal for Dunston came when Pearson’s cross found Dunston’s pacey forward Jack Maskell. Maskell broke away with ease past James Winter and Dale Elgie to slot it home in the 57th minute.
Dunston were still searching for more goals, and found another just two minutes when Luke Carr broke forward and fired a shot in the box that Michael Coulson headed in from close range to make it 1-4 just before the hour mark.
Aycliffe would gain a second, albeit a consolation. Ethan Wood skillfully dribbled past several Dunston defenders to give Cole Kiernan a quick and easy finish.
With 71 minutes on the clock however, a comeback didn’t seem too likely.
Just four minutes later, Coulson got his hat-trick when he found Baxter who drilled a ball into the box that Winter initially dealt with, however the Dunston attack continued and Coulson found the ball and curled it in from close range to make it 5-2 to the away side, which is how the final score would remain.
Aycliffe, currently sixth in the table but unable to achieve a top-five play-off spot, complete their first season in the Northern Premier League on Saturday (April 27) when Pontefract Collieries will be the visitors to Moore Lane.