BISHOP AUCKLAND v JARROW ROOFING

FA Cup Preliminary Round

After their surprise defeat of neighbours Shildon, Bishop Auckland host Jarrow Roofing to compete for a place in the first round proper. It is sunny but, as ever, breezy at Heritage Park and, with the wind behind, Bishops start well. Their key man Andrew Johnson, at centre forward, makes a couple of dangerous darts down the channels, but without end effect.

Jarrow look less lively but ten minutes in an innocuous handball in the box gives them a penalty. Their own key man, also centre forward, John Campbell hits the spot kick well but Bishop keeper Mark Bell dives right to save even better. The home team react well to the let off and press forward. Nichols passes cleverly to Palmer in the Jarrow box; his shot comes back off the far post and Lane, alive to the situation, hits the rebound into the net.

It is Jarrow’s turn to respond, and Campbell soon beats Bell to a cross to get the ball in the Bishop net, but only by using his fist; so no goal and a yellow card. It’s a while before they threaten again, but on the half hour another cross is floated over and a Bishop defender, misjudging the wind, allows it to pass overhead. Behind him Lewis Teasdale controls the ball and despite the difficult angle he fires low into the goal.

The half time score of 1-1 looks better from Jarrow’s viewpoint, as Bishop Auckland have had more of the play, and all of the wind.

The first action of note in the second half is a Jarrow free kick awarded thirty yards from goal. Campbell takes it and balloons it thirty yards over the bar and into Sainsbury’s petrol station. They come closer with a corner which Bell fails to gather, but the resulting scuffle at the far post end with the ball in the side netting.

Jarrow have the wind in their sails and when the next corner is whipped in full back Alex White’s close range glancing header proves unstoppable and gives the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Bishop fight back but find it hard work into the wind. With ten minutes left a chance falls to Johnson six yards from goal but he delays his shot and is closed down. From then on it becomes high speed hit and hope, but even the intervention of your correspondent, returning the ball quickly for a throw-in, cannot produce an equaliser.

So disappointment for the Two Blues but celebrations for the Roofers who have not yet reached the ceiling of their ambition in the 2015-16 FA cup.

BILLINGHAM SYNTHONIA v CONSETT

(FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round)

It is been a few years since the Cup Run began at Central Avenue, but August is the best month to visit the Billingham ground - any later in the year and a cold wind whistles in from the Tees estuary. Today the sun shines and the breeze is merely fresh as the teams warm up.

The new season sees big changes at Billingham Synthonia. After the club was relegated last season for only the second time ever, long term (21 years at the helm) Chairman Stuart Coleby has stood down and new leadership is in place. Support for the new regime, led by Chairman David Hillerby, however is not unanimous, and at 2.57 a banner is unfurled on the far touchline saying “Hillerby Mafia Out”; at 2.58 it is removed by manager Conrad Hillerby.

As for opponents Consett, they have started comfortably in the first division of the Northern League and, in another reminder of Synthonia’s decline, they field at centre forward Michael Sweet – who last season was Billingham’s leading scorer and player of the year.

After a cagey start to the game both goals are briefly threatened; in fact the Consett goal begs for mercy as a good Synthonia move down the right produces a precision cross that finds centre forward Jamie Clarke in the clear six yards out. His header is too deliberately downward and bounces up and over the bar. Clarke’s next involvement is to draw a foul 25 yards out; his free kick is on target but Consett keeper Jeffries has time to kneel down and gather the powder puff shot.

By the half hour Consett are in control. Synthonia can’t keep possession and so are pushed back repeatedly, but the defence stands firm and at half time there is no score.

The second half opens as a more even contest, rather due to the visitors losing their rhythm than the home team improving. And again Consett come closest to conceding, as a near own goal is clawed away by the keeper. But from then on it is increasingly Consett on the attack with Synthonia relying on their five man back line to hold firm.

With ten minutes left, phase two of Synthonia’s game plan is revealed when a second forward is brought on as a substitute in a bid to snatch a win. It doesn’t quite work, but neither can Consett take advantage of the additional space in midfield, so it ends, as it started, at nil – nil, and a replay in mid-week will be needed to determine whose cup run will continue.