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Tuesday 10th September 2002 - Frickley Athletic 1-0 Gateshead

The Blues lifted themselves off the foot of the UniBond premier Division table as they finally claimed their first win of the season at the eighth attempt. But, after taking an early lead, they were forced to do it the hard way as Mark Hine's rash two-footed challenge six minutes after half time saw the Blues forced to defend desperately with 10 men.

The Blues lined up with Craig Marsh partnering Andy Evans up front whilst Mark Hancock dropped to right full-back with Remo Nesa playing down the right and Ryan Williams down the left. Jon Wordsworth partnered Paul Marquis in the centre of the defence.

The only goal of the game came with the first real attack of the game. On 7 minutes Mark Samways collected a cross and immediately threw it out to Williams on the left. He galloped down the wing for three quarters the length of the pitch before sending over a great cross for HINE to head past David Campbell from just inside the box. Less than a minute later Nesa brilliantly timed his tackle in his own box to deny David Colvin a goalscoring chance. On 22 minutes former Bransley player Steve Agnew put a 25 yard free-kick wide of the left hand post as the visitors looked for an equaliser. Nesa was then forced off and replaced by Paul Burke whilst Craig Elkin was booked following a challenge in midfield which saw the Gateshead player immediately jump up and start pushing the offending player - this was a tactic which they employed fairly regularly and which the Referee, Mr Andrew Morbin, obviously thought there was nothing wrong with. On the half hour Gateshead's Colvin headed down a deep cross into the path of Gareth McAlindon who mis-kicked from just inside the box with the whole goal to aim at.

The match threatened to get out of control within minutes of the restart, no more so when Elkin had been fouled on half way, only for Hine to dive in on the guilty player and subsequently receive his marching orders. This led to series of flare-ups between players, almost all of which could have been avoided if Mr Morbin had been firm and stamped his authority on the game early on. Hancock and Gateshead sub Lawson were both booked for one such incident whilst Harrison was lucky to get away with swinging an arm at Elkin with the Referee deciding, after consultation with his Assistant, not to even speak to him! With the extra man the visitors pushed forward with the Blues being forced to defend deeply. Evans was dropped back into midfield to cover for Hine whilst Burke was trying to break from midfield to support Marsh whenever the Blues had the ball. McAlindon went close when he fired just over the bar from 20 yards whilst moments later Goodchild hit the outside of the left hand upright but, these moments apart, the Blues defended well until two minutes into injury time when a shot through a crowded penalty area beat Samways but Marquis hacked it clear. 

Frickley Athletic : Samways, Nesa (Burke 25), Gowen, Hine, Wordsworth, Marquis, Hancock, Elkin, Evans, Marsh, Williams. Unused subs: Peel, Morris 

Gateshead : Campbell, Harrison (Reed 83), Colvin (Lawson 55), Goodchild, Jones, Mohan, McAlindon, Bishop (Dixon 86), Preen, Agnew, Flannigan

Attendance : 121   

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