Sat. 5th Nov – Durham City 4ths v Morpeth 2nds
Durham 1 – 6 Morpeth
Scorers Mooney(2), Calder (2), Mellor, Murgatroyd
MOM: Gavin Minty
Morpeth travelled down to Durham brimming with confidence after last week’s easy win over Richmond, and indeed with keeper Mark back, the stage was set for another victory.
Morpeth started well with Calder playing up front, and after some well crafted play Mooney turned in a deflection to open the scoring in under 10 minutes. Not content with a single goal Morpeth kept pressing and with runs down the left wing and Tordoff on the right, play soon opened up with Calder scoring a deflection off a defender’s face!
With a solid back line that never looked under real pressure and wing backs Beddis and James providing good routes out of defence, the play remained largely in Durham’s half with Mooney scrambling in his second and Murgatroyd firing into the bottom corner to bring the score to 4-0, meanwhile Hinshaw was proving that his 2nd’s spot is well earned with good play!
The pace was then eased off as Morpeth got comfortable, but diligent work from Minty and Hudson in the middle enabled Calder to grab his second of the match and leave Morpeth feeling satisfied at half time despite not playing their most fluent hockey.
A stirling team talk later and a reminder from Phil not to slow the pace too much in the 2nd half and Morpeth set about trying to make it another huge win. Things looked set to continue when Mellor whacked in a short corner, promptly celebrating by jumping and letting a high pitched ‘wooo’. With a 6-0 lead Morpeth began to get tired and mistakes crept in, Durham capitalised on this with a ball through the heart of the defence that was deflected in, although whether the foul that resulted in the hit was inside or outside the 25 was controversial.
The major calamity of the day then occurred as a defender barged into Minty, breaking his collarbone! The match resumed as Minty went to hospital, albeit subdued. The remainder of the match was made up of scrappy play as Morpeth missed a few chances to increase the lead and Calder dived for a reverse shot which earned him only a bloody knuckle. Hinshaw ending up with a bloody foot concluded a bad day for injuries as the game ended 6-1.
A good result for Morpeth, but they should look at their second half performances and also face a minor injury crisis as Minty will be out until after christmas and others, including Gilmore, doubtful. All that said, still unbeaten and now clear at the top of the table, bring on Stockton!
