A fourth successive defeat for Consett leaves them now seven points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Albany Northern League First Division table. An upsurge in form is now desperately required if The Steelmen are to avoid the drop as they will probably need to win six of their remaining eleven games to stand a chance of staying in the top flight.
Unfortunately at a critical time of the season Consett have been hit by injuries and illness when they needed their strongest team on the park. For the game at Esh they were without the injured Johnny Brown and Alan Batey with Rod Butler, Mark Lee and Tony Halliday all absent through illness. With Scott Wilson suspended and Jeff Sugden on holiday, manager Colin Carr was left with a selection headache. But at least Neil Lowdon and Andrew Thompson returned after injury and holidays respectively. The versatile Stuart Kelly who has played several games in goal this season filled in at centre-half while youngsters Andrew Green and Ben Thompson stepped up from the under 18’s to the subs bench.
Esh had the advantage of kicking down the slope in the opening half and after two minutes Consett keeper James Platten had to save at the second attempt after originally fumbling Paxton’s effort. Consett then had a good half hour in which they held their own and probably went closest to scoring without seriously threatening the home goal. After 11 minutes Colin McLeod got a head to Lee Suddes’ left wing corner but the ball flew across the goalmouth.
Two minutes later another Suddes corner, this time on the right, again found the head of McLeod but French saved comfortably at the foot of the post. Just before the half hour a Suddes free kick was headed out to Lowdon on the edge of the area but his rising shot went well over.
Towards half time Esh Winning started to get on top. Burns broke through on goal but just as he was about to shoot the ball bobbled and he just kicked fresh air and the chance was gone. Then following a corner Purrier saw his header go straight into the grateful arms of Platten. The best chance of the half came a minute before the interval. Messer played the ball across the face of goal for Marron running in at the far post but his shot was brilliantly turned away by
Platten.
Half Time: Esh 0-0 Consett
Two minutes after the break Consett’s Gareth McKenna put in a cross which almost found Suddes but keeper French smothered the ball before he could get a touch. The winning goal came after 55 minutes. Burns played a 1-2 with Hawthorn before drilling the ball past Platten from a narrow angle.
Consett battled to get back into the game and just after the hour mark McLeod craned his neck to get in a header from Andrew Thompson’s cross but the ball went straight to French. At the other end Burns curled a shot narrowly over while Messer also headed over the top.
In a disappointing conclusion to the match The Steelmen failed to put the home defence under any pressure and really didn’t look like taking something from the game, with Esh just about deserving the three points.
Full Time: Esh 1-0 Consett
