West Auckland Town continued the defence of our 2023/24 ‘Frank Pattison’ Challenge Cup title Tuesday evening. We welcomed National League side Gateshead FC in the Second Round, who defeated South Shields in the First Round, and are currently in the Top 5 of the league table.

Gateshead fielded a starting 11 made up of their academy players, as they did in their First Round victory over South Shields. It was a great opportunity for West to compete against a different type of opposition. The game didn’t get off to the best start for West. Only 5 minutes in, Gateshead took an early lead, with Harry Gittins slotting home. A couple of minutes later, West almost had an immediate response. October’s Player of the Month, Joey Hope, played a low ball to Charlie Wood, who just failed to make contact. West continued to apply pressure and took control of the game, despite the slow start. James Harrison did well to hold the ball up, he laid it off to Layton Watts. He found Hope, who drilled a shot wide. With 20 minutes gone, Harrison was involved again. He set up Watts, who curled an effort towards goal from outside the box. Gateshead goalkeeper Matty Cassap dived and saved the shot. Cassap would play a huge part in stopping West increasing their lead throughout the night. With 24 minutes on the clock, Watts was at it again, this time his shot just going over the bar. West were getting closer, and nearly made the breakthrough after half an hour. Defender Ben Dale’s header clipped the inside of the post, the ball seemed to be headed for the back of the net, but Cassap again denied the goal. Then, the leveler. Layton Watts found the net from distance, after some good build-up play from West Auckland. A deserved goal after having applied pressure for a good period of time. Cassap was called into action again not long after that equaliser. Liam Hegarty cut in down the left and bent an effort towards the far corner, the keeper just getting down to parry it away. There was one last effort for West before half-time, Harrison skipping through the Gateshead defense, getting a low strike away, with the keeper just managing to get a touch with his foot. Gateshead had the last chance of the half, Gary Brown, with some good old school defending which saw him get in a last-ditch tackle to stop the Gateshead counter-attack. All level at the break with West having the better chances.

As the second half began, it was West who managed to create the first chance. James Harrison picked up a loose ball and curled a strike just over the bar. That was followed by an effort from Luke Bailey. He turned and had a shot from the edge of the box, with Cassap tipping it over for a West corner. Two substitutions followed. Charlie Wood was replaced by Josh Robertson, and Ben Creamer came on to replace Liam Hegarty. 10 minutes after coming on, Ben Creamer scored his first West Auckland Town goal. Harrison had a strike saved by Cassap, and Creamer was straight onto the rebound to put West ahead. Creamer almost had a second. 83 minutes gone and Watts drilled in a low ball which Creamer converted, only for the linesman to flag for offside. West managed to see out the final few minutes, and got a win on what was a fairly comfortable night. The 2-1 victory sees West into the next round, and hopefully gives some confidence to the team going into next week’s league game against top of the table Redcar Athletic.

We spoke to Luke Bailey after the final whistle, who gave his thoughts on the cup victory. 

“I thought it was a really good performance overall. A slow start but we managed to grow into the game and take a foothold for the majority against a good young side who tried to play football the right way, had chances to kill the game off, but in a cup game, getting through is the most important thing, and we managed to do that. It was a great night in the final last year and hopefully we can get that experience again for the club and fans.”

Full-Time: West Auckland Town 2-1 Gateshead FC

Competition: Durham Challenge Cup

Attendance: 131

Match Report by Phil Dodds

Photos by Phil Sage.