Following Tuesday night’s home victory against Redcar Athletic, we headed to Newcastle on Friday evening to face Newcastle Blue Star. Another pleasant enough night, with a 7:30pm kick-off at Scotswood. A game against a strong Blue Star team were sat 4th in the league table, and beat West 5-1 at the Northern Metal Recycling Stadium earlier this season. 

A game which was littered with yellow cards, saw West Auckland Town Manager Gary Forrest shown a red card after the final whistle, the Blue Star Manager booked and, generally, an uncontrolled game of football. The first half was very stopped, start, and was littered with challenges and questionable decisions which set the tone of the game. West did take some time to settle, whilst Blue Star looked to control possession. There were opportunities created by both sides, with Blue Star’s closest opportunity in the opening 15 minutes going to Sean Reid, who fired wide from distance. The first goal of the game came for the home team. Harry Barclay sent a free kick into the box, and Paul Dudgeon found the back of the net to put Newcastle 1-0 up. By this point, Gary had been booked, and Layton Watts was sin binned for 10 minutes for complaining to the referee’s assistant. When Layton came back on to the field, he created the best opportunity for West when he sent a dangerous cross into the box. James Harrison was on the end of it but couldn’t convert the chance. The referee blew his whistle for half-time, and Blue Star led 1-0.

Two changes were made by West at the start of the second half, Lee Hume and Charlie Wood replacing Liam Hegarty and Luke Bailey. The changes made an impact, and it wasn’t long before the West was level. With 50 minutes gone, Watts sent a great ball into the box from a corner kick, Charlie Wood got on the end of it with a header, only for it to hit the bar. Anthony Bell was on hand to get the rebound and get the goal to draw West level. Unfortunately for West, Blue Star regained the lead only 3 minutes later. A dangerous cross from Dan Lanning was sent into the West 6-yard box, and Sean Reid sent a bullet header past West goalkeeper Nick Liversedge. From here, it was a difficult watch. In what had already been a fairly uncontrolled game, there was the feeling of it being only a matter of time before a red card was shown. The was a stoppage in play for around the 90 minute mark when most players came together, resulting in more yellow cards. Blue Star got their third in stoppage time, Luke Heppell creating the opportunity, and Dudgeon getting his second of the game. As the final whistle blew, Gary got a red card for letting the referee make his thoughts known on what was a frustrating night. 

First Team coach Stuart Niven gave his thoughts after the final whistle. 

“Poor first half where we didnt handle the ball well enough. Second half was better and I thought we caused them some real problems without taking our chances. A frustrating night after such a good performance in the last game against the league leaders.”

Full-Time: Newcastle Blue Star 3-1 West Auckland Town

Competition: Northern League Division One

Attendance: 332

Match Report by Phil Dodds