FA Vase 1st Round

BISHOP AUCKLAND v HOLKER OLD BOYS – 1 November 2014

It is a cool day at Heritage Park, and it seems a bit low key after last week’s big FA Cup crowds at Spennymoor and Shildon, but this is still early days in the Vase and hopes are high for a few local Northern League teams, including Bishop Auckland.

The Two Blues are appropriately kitted out in their halved shirts while Holker Old Boys sport green and white hoops as all observe a minutes silence for Pat Partridge, a local born referee who went far in the game, including officiating at the World Cup, and apparently acted as an emergency linesman here in his eighties.

Bishop have the better of a scrappy first half, and come nearest to scoring with a few scrambles in the box, but Holker survive. Their hopes of surviving the second half are dented within a couple of minutes of the restart when a cute cross from the right is headed home by John Butler.

Twenty minutes later the home team pressure tells again with a succession of corners. One rebounds off the inside of the far post and falls to centre half Ben Riding who fairly smashes into the goal.

At 2-0 Bishop go for the kill, providing gaps at the back that give Holker some hope, but as the game wears on the visitors seem to settle for defeat. And in the dying seconds substitute Kyle Davis is able to nod in a third to complete a convincing passage into round two.

ELSEWHERE

The all northern league tie saw Billingham Synthonia go out at 3-1 Guisborough Town, but that was the only casualty in the local teams with Marske United beating Winterton Rangers 5-0 and Shildon getting a good 3-2 win at Colne.

FA Vase state of play: 1 yet to start (last year’s runners up West Auckland), 4 through, 8 out.