7th May 2016 - Durham City (h)

The rest of the country was sweltering in temperatures in the 20s but no surprise...in Whitley Bay we weren't. The sea fret was rolling in so it was winter coats and woolly huts for the loyal fans who couldn't give a monkeys if Newcastle won at Villa or Sunderland beat Chelsea. One of them was going down but considering I had just left a very happy family celebrating Middlesbrough's promotion to the Prem, I wasn't so focussed on the plight of the other Northeast 'giants'.
There was none bigger than the Bay of course, even though their place in the Ebac Northern League Division 1 was secure. Today's match against Durham City would go some way to determining whether the visitors could escape relegation themselves and in the process relegate West Allotment.
In a similar fashion to the previous game against Jarrow, the first half lacked excitement as the ball pinged about midfield. Great as it was to see the pairing of Haley and Prosser in the middle, the Bay were lacking that final pass. In fact if it hadn't been for a pink-shirted Flynn's last ditch safe with an outstretched arm, City would have been ahead. The Bay's reply was a Munroe header and blocked follow-up.
All of this didn't impress our West Allotment buddies who were hoping to see Whitley do them a favour. In fact Long-Haired Andrew's son kept complaining about how cold it was at the coast, how he would have preferred to have watched the cricket game being played out on the other side of the ice rink. For once we were confident that things would come good. It didn't start well when Flynn brought down a Durham forward who would have been through on goal. We feared the worst when the ref pulled out a red card with his notebook. Thankfully, he was only given a yellow.
Six minutes later, the industrious Haley unleashed a shot that took a couple of deflections before it drifted over Jennison's head and into the net. He was not amused. For the first time I noticed that it was our former hero in goal. The same man who had helped the Bay beat Matlock in that famous penalty shoot-out amongst other heroic acts. Did we show him the slightest bit of gratitude? Not on your Nelly. The former Bay number one went into tantrum mode as he bellowed at his defence: thus losing our sympathy.

Shanks 2-0....wait for the tantrum!

Next up, it was the Shankster, who latched onto Kempster's cross, volleying the ball into the ground and over Mr Hissyfit. Long-haired was chuffed to bits. So were the members of the West Allotment committee who he spotted leaving the old stand making their intentions clear as they headed to the bar. Nice to be of service I told them.
The Bulgarian Bulldog, Ivanov then stormed into the penalty area but his shot drifted wide.

Feeling confident, Chandler withdrew Shanksy to let Gladstone join in the fun up front. Was Gladstone looking to score against the man who had kept him on the bench? That would probably have sent Jennison over the top. As it was another Supermac thunderbolt saw Jennison through the bottle out...literally.
With two minutes left Supermac's shot finished off the scoring and sadly ended Durham's spell in the First division. Dilly Ding Dilly Dong! Four cracking goals. #Getinthebag!
Nice to help out West Allotment...you are welcome!