After a much needed summer break, Durham United were back in Wearside League action, ready to go all over again. On a warm August afternoon - which already feels like a world away - United welcomed Hartlepool Pools Youth FC Seniors to Maiden Castle.
In an effort to give the players a summer holiday after the university year finished at the end of June, United joined the Wearside party a little late. With two sides already recording 7 wins and 21 points on the board, a winning start was imperative.
United’s first team of the season was full of fresh faces, both new to the club and returning. Phil Kay, Freddy Alcock, Rory Edwards, and Charlie Bramwell were all making their debut for the club, whilst Freddie Merrett was making his return after a year away from the city.
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Durham started the brighter of the two teams, with Freddie Walton sliding a ball through to Zane Liles, whose effort to round the keeper was sharply cut out. The game then settled down into a monotonous rhythm but, this being Wearside, that was never going to last long…
Liles was back in the action on the 30-minute mark, as Hartlepool were given a free-kick. As it was about to be taken, Liles, perhaps unnecessary, picked up the ball and the opposition player followed through into him with his kicking action.
The referee sent off the Hartlepool player for serious foul play and booked Liles for delaying a restart which, by the letter of the law, may have been the correct decision all round.
The last meaningful action of the first half could well have seen Durham United take the lead. A cross from the left-hand side made it all the way to the back post where Walton was standing, largely unmarked, 8 yards out from goal.
Thinking he was offside, he generously decided to lob the ball into the hands of the Hartlepool goalkeeper (at least, that’s what he told me…).
HALF-TIME: 0-0
The game continued to simmer away after half-time, always having the potential to boil over, but just about keeping itself in check.
Again, being the Wearside League, it wasn’t long until it reached that potential. Whilst the Hartlepool players half-heartedly shouted for a penalty, more so in hope than in confidence, one supporter took his appeals too far, and was shown a red card by the referee and ordered to leave the stadium.
“It’s all about you, and you’re *****” he shouted, as he walked off, presumably unaware of the irony that, for a period of 10 minutes, he made the game all about himself.
Instead of leaving the stadium, he just walked to the other side of it and sat in the stands.
“I’m a spectator, you can’t tell me what to do, I’m going to sit right here”, he continued to shout at the referee. As it turns out, the ref could tell him what to do, and he eventually left the stadium.
After a lengthy stoppage as the situation worked itself out, play restarted with Durham quickly able to slip into the same groove they had before the interlude.
Zane, seemingly involved in every major moment of the match, picked the ball up on the left hand side (metaphorically, this time) , cut in and, from 20 yards out, unleashed a curling effort. Not long after he kicked it, it was deflected off the back of a defender, past the wrong-footed goalkeeper, and into the back of the net for the first Durham United goal of the season. 1-0.
The winger made it abundantly clear that, whatever the dubious goals committee decided, he was claiming this goal as his own.
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United struggled to build on this momentum, as the game turned into something more akin to Shrove Football than Association Football.
Charlie Bramwell, on his debut for the club, pounced on a loose ball and passed it out wide but, long after the ball was gone, received an elbow to the back of the head. This was judged to be part of the ‘Shrove Football’ rules and so the game went on, but not even the loose rules of an annual town tradition could make a case for the slide tackle on Seb Hopkins just seconds later.
“What was that!?”, one of the Durham supporters asked angrily from the stands, more rhetorically than it may seem on paper.
A reply from the Hartlepool stand of, “It was a foul, you sausage”, did little to calm the fury in the Durham stands.
Not long after that, Zane - forever in the action - was booted up in the air, by the Hartlepool full-back, for reasons I’m yet to work out. Fortunately for Zane, the defender connected with the centre of his shinpad. Unfortunately for the defender, he connected with the centre of Zane’s shinpad…
The Hartlepool man walked over to the stands to retrieve the ball, puffing his chest out and trying his best not to show any pain. That was an act that he could only keep up for a matter of seconds as, before play had even restarted, he limped off the field, lay down, and applied a healthy amount of deep heat.
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Durham had another gilt-edged chance on the hour mark, as a brilliant counter attack saw Walton play a ball across the face of the goal, which just evaded the left foot of Phil Kay, but made it to the back post, where Zane was unable to double his tally, as the goalkeeper made a fantastic save.
As Alex Dinan came on in the centre of midfield and Caine McCartney entered the game on the wing, Durham managed to carve out a few more chances but, unable to convert any of them, it made the last ten minutes very nervy indeed.
Ten-man Hartlepool continued to battle, win free-kicks, and flood the Durham box. Morgan Lant, having only arrived back in the city the night before, came on to shore up the defence in the latter stages.
Lant spent absolutely no time messing about, and got stuck in from the off, making his way into the referee’s book not long after.
The cross from the resulting free-kick was bundled into the Durham goal although, because the Hartlepool man performed a move more regularly seen on the volleyball court, the goal was ruled out.
One member of the Durham support brought his allegiance into question by vehemently contesting the referee’s decision to award a free-kick. It then became clear, as he shouted “It’s come off his hand!”, that he mistook the referee’s gesture as one of awarding a goal.
Hartlepool continued to trouble the Durham box and, after a quick counter-attack, gave themselves a good opportunity to level the game. That was before Ellis Challinor arrived on the scene, and calmly shepherded the man away from any danger, allowing Durham to regroup and win the ball back.
Challinor was awarded man of the match for a performance in which he was rarely the focus of any event (except one throw-in that was so long it bounced over the crossbar…), but that is the sign of a good defender.
But, in the last reaches of the game, it was down to Ryan Cook and the goalkeeper, Harry Archer, that Durham kept the clean sheet and took the 3 points. In one play, Cook made a phenomenal sliding block on the line, which Merrett then hooked away. Then, as a corner was swung in, it bounced off a body and looked to be heading into the goal until Archer swooped across his line and secured the ball.
With ten men for more than half the match, Hartlepool Pools Youth FC Seniors made a very tough game of it, turning it into a physical battle and preventing Durham from playing the ball on the ground. Yet, Durham were more than strong enough to come away with the points, and played some fantastic football which showed the potential of things to come this season.
FULL-TIME: DURHAM UNITED 1 - 0 HARTLEPOOL POOLS YOUTH FC SENIORS
Man Of The Match: Ellis Challinor
Line-Up: Harry Archer, Freddy Alcock, Freddie Merrett, Ellis Challinor, Ryan Cook, Seb Hopkins, Charlie Bramwell, Rory Edwards, Fred Walton, Zane Liles (Yellow Card 30', Goal 55'), Phil Kay.
Substitutions: Caine McCartney (60'), Alex Dinan (60'), Adam Browne (75'), Morgan Lant (80') (Yellow Card 85')
Written by George Gompertz
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