Match report proudly sponsored by Northumbria Print
Morpeth Town were utterly ruthless as they dismantled a porous Lancaster City 6-3 at Craik Park in the Pitching In NPL Premier Division.
The Highwaymen were merciless from start to finish, taking the lead through Jeff Henderson’s 24th minute header before Dominic Lawson restored parity for the visitors on 29 minutes. Town turned on the after burners just before half-time, scoring through Chris Reid on 44 minutes and Ryan Wombwell on 45 minutes. Town scored through Jack Foalle on 47 minutes, with Sam Bailey reducing the deficit on 55 minutes. But Michael Turner, on 58, and Wombwell, on 67, pushed the Highwaymen further clear. Enock Likoy scored a late consolation in stoppage time.
The game started in a much more even fashion than the outrageous final score might suggest. Both sides settled into the flow, with Lancaster, arguably, looking the more threatening going forward, with Henri Ogunby’s strike hitting the bar early on for the visitors.
That gave Town a gentle nudge, and they took the lead on 24 minutes through captain Henderson. The defender, meandering up from the back for a Ben Sayer corner, wriggled clear of his marker and slammed a header down the middle of the goal to put his side ahead with his first goal of the season.
The lead would last for all of five minutes as the Dolly Blues earned a deserved equaliser through Lawson. After his initial strike thundered off the inside of the post and flew across the goal-line, Morpeth were at sixes and sevens as a ball was swung in almost immediately for the number nine to head in from six yards.
The Highwaymen were looking increasingly dangerous on the front foot and perhaps should have retaken the lead on 34 minutes but Sam Fishburn, in from the start against his former club, squared for Foalle, who couldn’t get there in time to convert with an open goal at his mercy.
With a minute to go before the interval, Reid would provide his own decisive moment. The left back, finding an acre of space to capitalise on another ball in from Sayer, powered a diving header past the exposed Thomas Donaghy in the Lancaster goal to give his side an important advantage.
That was extended a minute later through Wombwell’s first of the night. The right back, on loan from Gateshead, latched on to a loose ball on the edge of the 18-yard box to drill a crisp low strike into the far corner and send his side into the interval 3-1 up.
That soon became four as Lancaster endured the worst possible start to the second half. Two minutes had passed when Foalle found a way through on the righthand side of the area before firing in at the near post for his sixth goal of the season so far.
Lancaster would reduce the deficit from the spot through captain Bailey on 55 minutes, but it was the briefest of respites as Town responded once again with the fourth Morpeth defender of the night registering. Turner was the one to profit from desperately poor defending, sending a flicked looping header from the near post into the far corner in the 58th minute.
Wombwell would get his second of the night, and Morpeth’s sixth, on 67 minutes, by deflecting a driven ball across the box from Foalle as Town cemented their dominance over an increasingly beleaguered visiting side.
But the latter would have the final say in stoppage time, Likoy scoring the goal of the game as he lashed a shot from distance that dipped over Dan Lowson to provide more respectability to the scoreline.
It wouldn’t stop the Highwaymen from sealing all three points ahead of a trip to Stalybridge Celtic next time out. Live match commentary can be accessed, for free, by clicking here from 2.55pm on Saturday.
MORPETH TOWN: Lowson, Wombwell, Reid, Sayer, Henderson, Turner, Foalle (Ramsey 80’), King, Fishburn (Pearson 72’), Donaldson (Pani 72’), Thomson.
SUBS: Morris, Robson
LANCASTER CITY: Donaghy, Bailey, Ogunby (Likoy), Ikpakwu (Jarvis), Allington, Brownhill, Hubbold, Whitham, Lawson, Norris, Evangelinos.
SUBS: Connelly, Carroll, Davidson
ATT: 394
