Ferryhill Athletic’s push for promotion suffered a blow as they fell to their second consecutive defeat against i2i International Soccer Academy, reports Chris Orton.
Despite playing some good football at times, Ferryhill’s opponents came across as completely over the top with their exuberant celebrations and were prone to frequent bouts of time wasting.
Athletic were a much better team than the one that lost in midweek but found themselves up against another youthful, pacy side who came to Dean Bank with a determined attitude.
They took the lead after quarter of an hour, and became very overexcitable as a result.
Ferryhill continued pressing though and came close to scoring shortly after this, but were unable to get the ball over the line.
Alex Quinn shot wide after almost half an hour, with the home side having the better chances at this point.
Kieron Richardson scored a belter of a goal for the home team after 30 minutes in what was Ferryhill’s best spell of the game.
Unfortunately, i2i got a second in quick response and once again celebrated as if they’d won the World Cup.
Reed Molloy went close for Ferryhill with five minutes of the first half to go, with Richardson netting his second shortly after.
The team from Northumbria University then went on to get a lucky third before the whistle blew for half time.
i2i went immediately on the attack as the second half began, but Ferryhill battled hard to keep them at bay.
Billy Snaith headed over the opposition bar, but Athletic were unable to break them down.
From this point on, each time the ball went out for a goal kick, the i2i keeper seemed to hang on to the ball for as long as he possibly could before releasing it, possibly not realising that the referee would add this time on at the end of the game.
Richardson fired over the bar towards the end of the game, before i2i got a fourth in the additional time that the referee had had to add on.
The loss left a very sour taste, doubly so due to a level of behaviour from the opposition that doesn’t really suit the Wearside League.
Alex Quinn was Ferryhill’s man of the match, in a game that was watched by three visiting groundhoppers from Bolton.
Next up is a short trip for an away league game against Coxhoe Athletic next Saturday, with kick-off at 2pm.
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
