The Blues gave their poorest performance of the season to date, going down by the only goal of the game to a lively Bishop Auckland side. Goalkeeper Mark Wilkinson was absent through work commitments and he was replaced by Nigel Bentley from local side Silkstone. Rob Hanby was also missing due to injury and Brendan West made his first full start in defence.

The visitors started well with Bentley being forced to turn a 20 yard free-kick by Shaw around the post after only 3 minutes and Mellanby blazed over the bar from 20 yards after 15 minutes. Three minutes later they took the lead with Dunwell firing low into the bottom left hand corner of the net from 15 yards after the Blues had failed to clear a corner.

It took almost 20 minutes for the Blues to get into a dangerous position when Ian Edge found Gary Duffty in space on the right with a brilliant crossfield pass. Duffty cut inside but the ball was cleared to the edge of the box where Chris Hurst was fouled. Andy Hayward took the resulting free-kick but fired tamely wide. On 28 minutes Martin Fox and Paul Haywood, who had earlier replaced the injured Richard Bashforth, combined well down the left for Fox to cross to Edge but his effort from 12 yards was well saved. The Blues were just beginning to exert a bit of pressure on the Bishop's goal but the visitors looked lively on the break and Bentley did well to save a header from Dunwell after a deep cross from the left. Then twice in first half injury time the visitors came close to extending their lead. First Nelson shot over from 8 yards after a free-kick bobbled about in the box and then Shaw hit the post and Chris Hilton hacked the loose ball off the line.

The second half was slow to get going until Bentley saved well from Shaw on the break on 69 minutes. Scott Collins then replaced Edge and the Blues began threaten more. On 72 minutes Collins it was who ran at the Bishop's defence but was blocked by two defender just inside the box. Then as he went for the loose ball he was blatantly pushed to the ground by a defender but the referee waved away claims for a penalty. A minute later the referee, Mr Pashley, received the biggest cheer of the game when he finally awarded the Blues a free-kick.

After 76 minutes the Blues played the best bit of football of the game when they worked the ball from right to left, ending with Fox crossing into the box but Duffty volleyed over from 12 yards. Then on 90 minutes Hayward looked to have grabbed an equaliser when he ran onto a through ball from Hilton but his angled drive came back off the inside of the post and Duffty's follow-up shot was caught by the keeper. Three minutes into injury time Hayward tried to catch the visitors off guard when he took a free-kick quickly but it was turned round the post for a corner which came to nothing.

Frickley Athletic : Bentley, Hilton, Fox, Lafferty, West, J. Watson, Duffty, Edge (Collins 70), Hayward, Hurst, Bashforth (Haywood 11 (Burton 86))

Bishop Auckland : Jones, Nelson, Foster, Gallacher (Wells 58), Salmon, Hutt, Mellanby, Howarth, Shaw, Brunskill (Dunn 86), Dunwell (Adams 64)

Attendance : 140