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Cullercoats v Blyth Town

2pm  21 September 2019

Northern Alliance, Challenge Cup, First Round
Cullercoats 2 Blyth Town 4 (att 48)

Blyth Town progressed to the next stage of the cup for teams in the Northern Alliance's top division after an eventful 90 minutes at the Links Avenue ground in Cullercoats.

The fun started in the opening minute, when the home side's goalkeeper was red-carded for a deliberate handball, outside the penalty area of course, that denied a clear goalscoring opportunity.

An outfield player took over between the sticks and although Blyth Town failed to score the resulting free kick but it didn't take them long to go ahead. They'd doubled their lead before Cullercoats tried a different player in goal, and it was no surprise that it was 3-0 before half time.

Perhaps Blyth were guilty of assuming the job was done, as they never really got going in the second half. The 10 men of Cullercoats looked the more likely goalscorers, and after 82 minutes they made matters interesting by getting a goal back.

Five minutes later it got even more interesting. A Cullercoats penalty reduced the deficit to a single goal, and a Blyth player was sin-binned for dissent, evening numbers on the pitch.

Cullercoats threw everything at trying to equalise, but in the final moments they were caught on the break and Blyth got a fourth. Cullercoats' keeper wasn't happy, moaned at the referee and was sin-binned, so Cullercoats had yet another change of keeper for the final few seconds.

Cullercoats are a long-established club, and have a basic but perfectly good ground at Links Avenue. The pitch is railed off, there's a small clubhouse and snack bar and a pair of dugouts.









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