23/10/2024
By Chris Gibbs
Unbeaten run comes to an end against Witton
Newcastle Town 1 Webster (90+4)
Witton Albion 2 German (4), Djabi (30)
After an impressive run of six unbeaten games and a run in the league which had seen us lose just one of our opening ten matches, it all came to a rather abrupt halt as Witton Albion headed back up the M6 with three points on a night when we struggled to lay a glove on our opponents.
We faced an uphill struggle from as early as the fourth minute when we fell behind to a fine long-range finish from Owen German. Slinny might be frustrated at getting beat from distance, but the truth is he wasn’t offered a lot of help in the shot getting closed down and ultimately you have to give credit for what was an excellent finish. Unfortunately, the early goal set the tone.
It was a night when we didn’t create a vast number of opportunities, but some of the better moments seemed to come when Ty Webster got on the ball. Ty, as well as being creator had a chance in the first half just before we fell further behind. A smart one two with Jake Avery saw him get into the box but his shot was just off beam.
We were feeding off scraps and within four minutes of that chance for Ty we fell further behind when we were punished for failing to defend our penalty area well enough. Mamadou Djabi capitalised with a clean first-time finish at the back stick.
We needed to respond quickly in the second half of the game but with Jake Twyford missing through illness and Carlos dos Santos out with an injury sustained at Hanley on Friday, our options to do so were limited.
Ethan Morgan replaced Tom Jones in the early stages of the second 45 but with only two centre halves on the bench in Harry Lutakome and Kyle Stubbs – who is still recovering from injury – as possible changes, a spark was needed from somewhere. It never came.
If anything, it seemed that Witton were more likely to add to their tally. Having established a comfortable two-goal lead, the visitors were relatively content to sit on their lead and break forward when the mood took them.
Having looked unlikely to register much of a goal threat in the regulation 90 minutes, we did finally spring forward in the final minute of added time and Ty Webster was rewarded for his industry by converting his first goal for the club.
No sooner had he done so, then the referee blew the full-timewhistle. We could have no complaints about the result.
League leaders Vauxhall Motors are the visitors on Saturday, and a great improvement will be required on last night’s showing to take something from that game. But this side is resilient and it’s often the way that we raise our game against the top sides. We will need to do so again.
Team: Slinn, Derbyshire, Ritchie, Sherratt, Thorley, Van der Laan, Robinson (Lutakome 69), Vale, Avery, Jones, (Morgan 55), Webster
Man of the match: Ty Webster – he’s still learning his position but his positivity and directness were a rare ray of hope on a night when we weren’t at our best. His goal was a worthy reward for another decent shift.