Three homes games from four, in FA Vase and league, resulted in three home wins for Bishop Auckland FC in the past fortnight. However, their latest game, away at fourth-place Yarm, resulted in the Two Blues’ third league defeat of the season.
With Easington keeping pace and having now played a game more than Bishops’ the dropped points finds the Two Blues dropping a place into second in the table.
After their comfortable defeat of Shildon in the Durham Challenge Cup, Bishops welcomed another local rival, Newton Aycliffe, to Heritage Park in the FA Vase.
Almost 600 fans witnessed the home side take the initiative with two early goals from Craig Moody (6) and Amar Purewal (11).
Aycliffe halved the deficit though Andrew Nelson on the hour but Bishops made sure they would be in the next round draw when Ben Jordinson restored the two-goal gap with 20 minutes remaining.
They will now host Atherton Laburnum Rovers of the North West Counties Football League in the Second Round of the competition on Saturday 31 October.
The Two Blues followed their cup wins with two home league wins, again by two-goal margins, against Crook Town and Whitley Bay.
An entertaining and high-scoring first half saw Gary Martin give Bishops the lead against Crook in the tenth minute before Collins Unuareokpa double the scoreline on 24.
The visitors found the net just after the half hour through Josh Allen (32) before Craig Moody made it 3-1 in added time at the end of the half.
However there was still time for Joe Bates to clain the visitors’ second before Moody put the game beyond doubt with the second half’s only goal in the 77th.
Whitley Bay were next put to the sword with Bishops scoring three times via Liam Noble (37), Craig Moody (50), and Gary Martin (59) before Noah Millington (76) managed a consolation.
However, things didn’t go Bishops’ way on their first road trip since the end of September, losing by a similar 2-1 scoreline to that last away game.
Yarm were the vanquishers on this occasion – league leaders Easington on the last – scoring each side of half-time through Joseph Dalton (11), Thomas Atkinson (73) before Harry Peterson halved the deficit too late, in the third minute of added time.
Next up are another three home games on the bounce with Northallerton the visitors on Saturday before Redcar arrive in midweek and that FA Vase second round tie the following Saturday.