West Auckland Reserves vs Durham United
Wearside Premier Division
Saturday 8th February 2025
The Northern Metal Recycling Stadium
DL14 9AQ
14:00
Written by Phil Kay
Durham United were back in action on Saturday, looking to make amends after back-to-back losses for the first time in the league. We also looked to be the first team the cross the 50-point mark in the division this season.
We were faced with an away fixture against West Auckland FC Reserves, whose first team, incidentally, won the first-ever 'World Cup' in 1909. Coach Cam, greatly admiring of this achievement, used the West Auckland Town FC history webpage (worth a read for anyone interested) as the backbone of his pre-match team talk.
The pitch at the game’s venue was oddly shaped: each goal (one more so than the other) was raised significantly higher than the centre of the pitch, giving opportunity to coin the Sunday-league phrase “We’ve got the hill this half”.
The game kicked off and despite both sides having efforts at goal, neither team really created a clear-cut chance to break the deadlock. Durham United looked the more threatening, especially from set pieces; corners delivered by Ryan Cooke and Seb Hopkins caused trouble for the West Auckland defenders and Ellis Challinor’s long throws looked like resulting in chances.
Half-Time: West Auckland Reserves 0 - 2 Durham United
The breakthrough finally came in the second half: a West Auckland corner was met by Freddie Merrett who cleared the ball to Chris Seery who played a pass down the line to Fred Walton.
Walton picked the ball up just inside his own half, and drove at the West Auckland back line. He was backed by shouts of “Go on Fred- you’re faster!” from the bench and he looked like going all the way until he was brought down in the box- penalty to Durham.
I expected Walton to take the penalty but, judging by the West Auckland defenders’ opinions on the penalty, Walton may have copped a fair bit of heat from the opposition if he had stepped up. I took the ball in hand and looked to continue my 100% penalty conversion rate (1/1). I put the ball to the keeper’s left as he dived to his right- 1-0 Durham.
This gave the team a big lift and it felt like we were in control of the match even more so. The second goal came 10 minutes later. Ellis Challinor played a great line-breaking pass into the feet of Chris Seery.
He turned and played an awesome driven pass in behind for me to chase onto. I cut inside the recovering defender before smashing the ball into the top-left corner. Chris Seery, having caught up, slipped to the floor in elation before jumping into my arms. A well-deserved 2-0 lead with Durham looking like taking home all three points.
I had a chance to score my first hat-trick at Durham not long after following another Chris Seery initiated counterattack. Unfortunately, I hit the ball straight at the keeper, meaning that West Auckland were lucky to not be giving me a match ball to take home.
The rest of the game was played out with Durham keeping any West Auckland attacks at bay and did enough to get over the line. A match that Durham needed to win and did so with a very professional performance.
Full-Time: West Auckland Reserves 0 - 2 Durham United
***
POTM: Chris Seery. Exceptionally dogged performance from Durham’s number 9; winning fouls, linking play and providing an excellent assist.
Line-up: Patrick Dixon, Chris Wild, Freddie Merrett (c), Ellis Challinor, Ryan Cook, George Pitsillides, Alex Dinan, Seb Hopkins, Chris Seery, Fred Walton, Phil Kay (Goal x2)
Substitutes: Marco Porozovs, Ollie Williams, Ossie O’Neill, Zane Liles, Sacha Lee
***
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