In thoroughly miserable conditions, Ferryhill Athletic, along with a few hardy fans made a swift return to Bede College, this time to face Wynyard Village in a league game, seeking to catch up on the league leaders, reports Chris Orton.
Athletic were unable to get hold of game in the early stages, and it was the home side that took a surprising lead after fifteen minutes follwing a rare defensive lapse from Ferryhill.
It didn’t take long until Kieron Richardson got the equaliser, however, with a decisive finish that went straight through the Wynyard defence.
Matthew Agar had a shot turned into the side netting following a good save by the home keeper, before he went on to score a belter shortly afterwards.
He was unlucky not to get a second from a header following an inswinging corner soon after this. With a quarter of an hour of the half left Alex Quinn then made it 3-1 with a powerful header.
Zak Lauder then had a goal disallowed as Ferryhill continued to pressure Wynyard, with those on the sidelines getting wetter and wetter.
Athletic started slowly in the second half, and an unfortunate and incident occurred when Lauder got a boot in the eye following a high challenge and had to go off. There was no subsequent booking for what looked like dangerous play.
Wynyard attempted to get hold of the game, but were unable to capitalise and were ultimately overrun with Richardson getting the fourth and Cameron Wallace getting number five for Ferryhill.
The Athletic team all played well, with particular praise deserved for Matthew Agar, Jay Roddam and Ellis Hare who bossed the game throughout.
Joel Bennett also made a good impact from the bench, showing some deft moves and neat touches.
Wynyard got a second goal with 20 minutes left, before a long-range shot from a Richardson flew into the net to make it six.
The drenched travelling supporters were cheered up when Richardson got another hat-trick, shortly followed by his fourth which was his 100th goal for Ferryhill Athletic: a truly remarkable achievement in his time at the club.
The game finished 7-2, and moved Ferryhill back up a space in the table to close the gap on Middlestone Moor who have played two games more.
The game turned out to be a really good squad performance, with Athletic benefitting greatly from their strength in depth.
The next game is an away fixture at Darlington RA as the Chapter goes to print, followed on Saturday by a home league match against Coxhoe, kicking off at 2pm.
Chris Orton
Writing regular Ferryhill Athletic match reports.
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
