29th September 2018 - Bishop Auckland (h)

Could the lads recover from the previous week? There was a sense of deja-vue on entering Hillheads as a change to the team sheet was announced: Dan Taggart had injured himself in the warm-up. Still he was only one player and surely the rest would be keen to get back to winning ways. The sun was shining, it was warm, Mr Wednesday and little Wednesday (Chris and James) had arrived (the latter back from Uni to see the Arctic Monkeys at the Arena) and so had Bob and Moira. What could go wrong?

Sun and good company!

Unfortunately Bob had left all his positivity at the gym, where he'd been working out that morning. He started off with the phrase "That's the end of our season then!" and reminded us that now we were out of the FA Vase and Trophy, it wouldn't be long before Shields beat us in the League Cup. He continued: if we can beat Heaton Stan in the Northumberland senior cup, Morpeth are waiting to marmalise us. Moira reminded him that he had missed out our search for the league title...strangely he wasn't too optimistic about that either. Having finished saying all that, he then said Foalle wouldn't be with us long...there would be plenty of clubs looking enviously on. I love the confidence of youth!

In charge of the visitors were ex Bay stalwarts: the Chan and Brian Rowe. It would be the perfect pick-me-up to get one over them and the number of ex-Bay players returning in the visiting colours. 

Unfortunately, the returnees had a few things they wanted to say and it was Kyle Fryatt who put the visitors ahead. The lads responded well but just couldn't get the precious equaliser. 

Luke Salmon forced a great save and then Ben Richardson went close with two freekicks: one either side of each post. Foalle also came close after a great bit of skill but his cross was cleared. His skill had deserved better!

In between all this, there was bad news for the Bay as Tom Flynn was forced to go off with an injury. Soon after, his replacement, Liam Powell went the same way. With no more goalkeepers to call upon, Luke Salmon had to go in goal. It wasn't boding well.

There was hope however for the 334 fans who had turned up when Foalle blasted home, the ball landing kindly for him to finish with great aplomb. Our spirits were lifted for the firt time since scoring the opener against Whickham. The feeling of bonhommie barely lasted six minutes before Bishops scored, exciting their band of supporters behind Salmon's goal. The stand-in keeper had performed well but was just unlucky to be outwitted by some good attacking play. 

By the final whistle, the visitors had added another two to make the score 4-1 to them. Salmon had made two excellent saves and performed admirably to put himself in with a chance of retaining his number one jersey. 

However, lady luck had deserted the lads once again: the sending off the previous week and two injured goalkeepers. At least Bob and Moira were excited: it was spinach risotto night then Strictly Come Dancing. What more could you want?