Rollercoaster on first South Shields trip
THE first visit in living memory to South Shields for our opening venture into this season’s FA Cup brought a mixed bag of emotions.
Those that made the trip were out numbered, were worried about the potential for a “banana skin” but ultimately left Mariners Park elated that we’d won and happy that we’d made the trip.
It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and when the wind dropped it was quite warm as was the welcome we received from every local that we met.
The only downer was that as we got off the Fingerpost Flyer, at the far end of an industrial estate, it was clear that there was nothing in the way of a pub in the area, so it was straight into the ground to sample the “delights” on offer – enough said about that!
It was clear that the travelling faithful were there but overall there must have been a touch of apathy about the early rounds of the competition, for there was only about 150ish of us at kick-off.
As the game progressed more and more appeared with tales of train cancellations on the East Coast line and the Northern route from Carlisle, with trams, buses and taxis all being used as the diehards made every effort to get there and that effort was well rewarded.
South Shields have been touted as the North-East version of Fylde; big money, big players, big ambition, and they started the game like they wanted our scalp. But the first half was even.
Their goal was another simple one, the winger gets to the by-line, crosses low and hard for a tap in from an unmarked striker.
It wasn’t the first time we’ve been undone by that route and I fear it won’t be the last.
The men in Hi-Vis yellow rallied and equalised five minutes later as Sam Walker pounced on a goalkeeping howler.
The second half was all County, the Mariners were clueless as to how they would deal with the pace and power of Elliot Osbourne and Nyal Bell.
Osbourne ran and ran at the defence while Bell’s strength and first touch left the Mariners all at sea (sorry, couldn’t resist).
Still, we were all resigned for a replay and then joy of joy Walker crosses and Bell, under loads of pressure, sticks out a foot and acrobatically seals the win right in front of the faithful.
So 9K in the bank and a place in the hat for the next round draw, brilliant.