Northallerton Town vs Crook Town AFC

Recap

POOR DEFENSIVE DISPLAY HANDS VICTORY TO NORTHALLERTON

Sonny Andrews made his Debut for Crook as well as New signing Lee Henderson in Goal. Joe Spooner was replaced at left back by Kyle Swankie due to injury and Callum Smith made his first start due to an injury to Callum Johnston.

Crook made the worst start to the game conceding after 3 minutes when a long ball caught out the Crook defence and Onions opened the scoring for Northallerton. 8 minutes later, worse was to follow as a wicked deflection put Northallerton 2 up giving goal keeper, Lee Henderson no chance. Sonny Andrews raised Crooks hopes by scoring after 25 minutes with his first shot on goal and was very unlucky 5 minutes later, hitting the cross bar with his 2nd shot. Lewis Martin then had a header from 5 yards out with the goal at his mercy but inexplicably missed the target. Crook were now firmly back in the game as they showed the battling spirit which helped them carve out a result against Bedlington the previous Saturday.

Early in the second half the game was effectively put to bed with another defensive error by Crook. Lewis Brown whilst not under pressure played a back pass to Henderson but did not see the Northallerton defender who ran on to the ball and slotted it past on coming keeper Henderson to make it 3-1 to the home side. Crook came back fighting with Smith looking dangerous on the left wing and Sonny Andrews being a constant threat to the Northallerton defence. Lewis Martin pulled another back for Crook making it 3-2 and it looked like Crook could gain a valuable point but Martin missed a string of chances and Crook yet again went to sleep at the back allowing Northallerton to effectively win the game by extending their lead to 4-2.

Crook manager Colin Myers said afterwards ” After an horrendous start going 2-0 down, we could have got something out of the game. Our defending at times was horrendous combined with missing some good chances at the other end there was only going to be one outcome”

Team: Henderson, Megran, Swankie, Turnbull, Brown (Cummings), Grant (Gill), Renshaw, Smith, Malloy, Martin, Andrews.

Subs not used: Morley, Moss, Young

Man of the Match: Sonny Andrews