Crook Town AFC vs Northallerton Town

Recap

Crook Fail to Hold On

Crook Town Manager Colin Myers gave a full debut to new signing Will Preston with the other two new signings Jack Oliver and Connor McEvoy making their debuts from the bench. James Oliver was due to start but took ill on the morning of the game and failed a late fitness test Giving Connor Hughes a start at Centre Half.

Crook Started brightly and created a number of chances in the opening exchanges. A right wing cross from Wayne Whitfield found Callum Smith unmarked at the back post but he blazed his first time volley over the bar. The breakthrough came in the 19th minute when a free kick from Joe Spooner was fumbled by the Northallerton Keeper giving Mark wood and easy tap in to put Crook into an early lead. Spooner then hit the cross bar with Crooks next effort from a free kick.

Northallerton came back at Crook and in the 29th minute a rash challenge by Spooner saw the ref point to the spot for a penalty to Northallerton. Although Niall Harrison in the Crook goal guessed correctly the penalty was placed just out of his reach for Northallerton to draw level and that’s how it stayed till half time

In the second half Northallerton started the better particularly in midfield where they were winning most first and second balls and this paid off in the 65th minute when a long ball over the Crook defence caught them square with Sim wrong footing Kieran Megran before lashing the ball in to the top corner of the goal putting Northallerton 2-1 up. This prompted an immediate change from the Crook bench seeing Jack Oliver replace Wayne Whitfield and Connor McEvoy replacing David Vincent. Things faired little better for Crook as Northallerton maintained their grip on the midfield and when Crook did win the ball they needlessly gave it away or opted to go long despite protestations from the Crook bench.

No Further chances of note were created despite crook replacing Callum Smith with Damon Reaks and going three up top for the last 15 minutes of the game and it ended 2-1 to Northallerton

Crook Manager Colin Myers commented after the game “We lost the game in Midfield again. Were stood too far off them and when we did win the ball we gave it away again. We need to address the Midfield area as it is just not competitive enough. On a positive note I thought Will Preston did well and we scored a goal at last. The late withdrawal of new signing James Oliver was a blow”

Team: Harrison, Wood, Megran, Hughes, Grant, Spooner, Vincent (McEvoy), Smith (Reaks), Whitfield (Oliver), Brown, Preston

Subs not used: Moss, Mann

Man of the match: Joe Spooner