Cullercoats 6-1 Horton
Mcewen 2, 50, 85
Tallen 6, 35
Cobley 8
Mason 8, Hall 8 (Mutch 65, 6) T.Patterson 8, Charlton 8, Watson 8, Williamson 8 (Connolly 55, 6) Cobley 8, Bromham 8 (Shipley 70, 6) Mcewan 9, Tallen 9, Morton 6 (Parker 35, 7)
Cullercoats blew away Horton inside the first ten minutes with some fantastic counter attacking football to extract revenge for our cup defeat on penalties.
Horton won the Toss and elected to use the strong wind advantage and immediately put Cullercoats under pressure with an early corner. The set piece actually led to our opening goal as Scott punched clear and Lewis WIlliamson drove forward and started the counter attack with a fine ball to find Andy Tallen on the left. He in turn found Alex Mcewan who turned on a sixpence and finished at the near post. This rattled Horton and just 4 minutes later A similar move led to Dan Morton finding James Bromham on the right and his shot was turned in by Tallen at the back post. Just two minutes later we were in dreamland as Skipper Martin Cobley was first to react in the box to turn home a set piece for 3-0.
Horton to be fair didn’t throw the towel in but couldn’t find a way past our solid back four who all defended superbly in difficult conditions facing the wind.
Not long before half Time Tallen again broke free as Horton couldn’t handle his pace as he rounded the keeper to make it 4-0.
Cullercoats started the second half poorly and conceded early when Karl Charlton misjudged a difficult bounce as Horton pulled a goal back. Horton seemed to have their tails up at this point but their comeback challenge was quickly snuffed out as Mcewan again got on the scoresheet to restore our 4 goal lead after a glorious through ball from Tallen.
Both sides made changes at this point with the game all but over and this seemed to effect the flow of the game. Despite several more chances it took Alex Mcewan until the 85th minute to complete the scoring with another finish to wrap up his hat-trick.
MOM Andy Tallen