Team Valley Carpets Challenge Cup Semi Final
1 May 2021
Whitley Bay Reserves 1-1 Newcastle Blue Star (AET)
(Whitley Bay Reserves win 3-0 on pens)
Match Report by Peter Fox
Bay goalkeeper Callum Elliott was the hero of this game for the hosts as he saved four penalties, one in normal time and three in the shootout. In truth there were few goalmouth incidents with most of the excitement being in the last ten minutes of normal time.
Blue Star arrived having taken maximum points from their group games, but it was Bay who looked the more positive in the opening exchanges and they had the ball in the net after five minutes only to see the goal disallowed for a foul.
They came close again a minute later when Evan Howard was set up by Matty Weirs and his low curling shot was deflected wide.
It was Bay again who came close just before the 20 minute mark when Ryan Keltie headed over from a right wing corner , and in doing so clashed heads with Blue Star keeper Alex Curran who was down for a little while but was able to resume after treatment.
After that both teams cancelled each other out with defences on top and the final ball not being quite on the mark.
Little had been seen of Blue Star as an attacking force until stoppage time in the first half when Zac Bewley worked his was in to the right corner of the penalty and fired in a fine shot across the goal which looked bound for the far corner but Elliott produced an excellent save.
Early in the second half Cameron Gascoigne set up Matty Weirs who fired over from just outside the box, before at the other end Josh Scott fired in a low shot which was held by Elliott.
Michael Colquhoun created a good chance for Bay when his low cross was met by Matty Weirs but a star defender managed to deflect the ball wide for a corner.
Now, in this tournament the sinbin is in operation. Anyone booked for dissent in the game was sent for a ten minute enforced breather and the first player to fall victim of this was Blue Star skipper Michael Dixon with 20 minutes to go. He wouldn’t be the last!
With ten minutes to go and the Blue Star bench asking for Dixon to be let back on, Bay made the breakthrough. Some good play between Colquhoun and Richard Coulson saw the latter break in to the right side of the penalty area and cut a low cross back for Matty Weirs to fire past Curran.
Four minutes later and Blue Star had the chance to equalise when Andrew Bulford was adjudged to have been fouled in the box by Keltie. I think it’s probably fair to say he made the most of it. Sadly for the Bay, two players, Jordan Laidler and Keltie were both sinbinned for their protests, which left Bay to play the remainder of normal time with nine men.
Former Bay player Gary Ormston stepped up to take the kick but Elliott saved and held the ball low to his left. However Bay’s joy was short lived as a minute later Josh Scott tried his luck from the left edge of the penalty area and beat Elliott.
Blue Star threw everything at Whitley Bay for the last five minutes including a couple of heavy challenges on Elliott, and then in the last minute at the other end Curran had to be quickly off his line to deny Colquhoun.
So we had half an hour of extra time which reverted to type as he two sides produced little in the way of chances. Four minutes into the first period a cross from Matty Weirs was met by a sliding Colquhoun but his effort was just wide and then midway through the second period Bulford latched on to a long ball but fired wide of the Bay goal.
In the very last minute Bewley fired in a cross from the left wing which was met by Bulford but was deflected wide.
And so on to the shoot-out.
Blue Star went first with Ormston first up. Again he went to Elliott’s left and although the shot was hit with more power than his effort in normal time, Elliott blocked the shot.
Jordan Laidler was first up for Whitley and he sent Curran the wrong way.
Mason Stephenson was next up for Blue Star. He went to Elliott’s right put his weak penalty was easily stopped by the Bay keeper.
Matty Weirs was second for Whitley firing low to Curran’s right and although the Blue Star keeper went the right way the ball was right in the corner giving him little chance.
Third (and lastly as it would turn out) up for Blue Star was Michael Dixon. He went low to Elliott’s left but again the Bay keeper turned the ball away.
This left Evan Howard with the chance to win it for Whitley, which he did, sending Curran the wrong way to spark joyous scenes among his team mates.
Bay starting X1: Elliott, Potts, Fenton, Laidler, Keltie, Coulson, Colquhoun, J.Weirs, Howard, M.Weirs, Gascoigne.
Subs: Reardon, Taylor, Aspey, Brennan, Smith.
