11/08/2024
By Chris Gibbs
Late Derbyshire header saves the day
Newcastle Town 1 (Derbyshire (90+3) Assist: Jack van der Laan
Mossley 1 (Mialkowski 31)
A superb Jack Derbyshire header in the third of five added minutes of injury time at the end of a tough opening league fixture was enough to ensure that we extended our unbeaten start to the season to three games with a 1-1 draw at home to Mossley.
But it wasn’t pretty. Or at least the first 45 minutes wasn’t. Expectations were high after a fantastic performance midweek against Evesham, but a reshuffle caused by the unavailability of Tom Thorley led to a hugely disappointing and disjointed first 45.
Mossley were not outstanding, but they were the stronger side in the first half although it did take some misfortune on our part for them to take the lead just after the half hour mark.
We appeared to have the danger covered but as Tommy van der Laan went to make a block tackle, the ball deflected into the path of Kacper Mialkowski, who rounded Slinny and finished at the near post despite Darbs’ best efforts to keep in out on the line.
In fairness it was no more than Mossley deserved, who were much the better side in the first half despite genuine goal-scoring chances largely being at a premium.
In fact, it took until first half injury time for us to properly threaten. The recalled Darbs played in Tom Jones but after scoring in his first two games, Tom failed to extend his run this time and lobbed over the bar perhaps thinking he was offside. There was no flag.
Bakes rang the changes at half time with Oli Ritchie and Nathan Barry sacrificed for the Jakes, Twyford and Avery as we switched to four at the back. There was a definite improvement albeit not enough of one to make an immediate impression.
Moving into the latter stages of the game we threw caution to the wind – George Lewis who replaced Tommy van der Laan with just under 20 minutes to play ought to have equalised but placed his back post finish too close to Mossley keeper Finlay Madigan, then as the game moved into the final minute, our new Portuguese signing Guilherme Baltazar smashed one from range against the bar.
It seemed that it might not be our day but as the clock ticked down, we earnt one last corner and this time Jack van der Laan’s outswinger was out of the reach of Madigan but not Derbyshire, who craned his neck muscles to bury a difficult header in the Mossley net. It was no less than we deserved but it was very welcome nonetheless and provided a thrilling end to an otherwise disappointing game.
Team: Slinn, Balthazar, Woods, Sherratt, Derbyshire, Stubbs, Graham, (J. van der Laan 72), T. van der Laan, (Lewis 72), Barry, (Avery 46), Jones, Ritchie, (Twyford 46)
Man of the match: Jack Derbyshire – for a goal on his return to the side and what might have been an assist in the first and a strong second half performance.
Attendance: 132