The Northern League returned to the West End in style tonight, with Newcastle Blue Star coming from behind to win 2-1 against Yarm & Eaglescliffe.
Yarm would take the lead in the 27th minute with their number four heading home from a corner. In typical Blue Star fashionhowever, ‘The Star’ would fight back, equalising through Nelson Ogbewe in the 45th minute. Blue Star would then secure the three points in the second half, with substitute Dean Holmes slotting home the winner in the 80th minute.
Fresh from an opening day thriller, Blue Star entered the game hoping to build on their opening day 3-2 victory at Jarrow, last Saturday. Yarm meanwhile would have hoped to bounce back after a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Prudhoe.
The home side started the brighter of the two sides with them dominating most of the ball early on. This soon led to the first chance of the game with Dan Lanning coming close to scoring in the 13th minute, seeing his shot smartly saved by the Yarm keeper.
Despite ‘The Star’ controlling the affair in the early stages, they struggled to find the killer pass needed. This would eventually come back to bite them as they would fall behind in the 27th minute, with the Yarm number four heading home from a corner.
Blue Star would immediately push for an equaliser but yetagain could not find the magic needed, nearly being punished for this in the 42nd minute, when Yarm nearly doubled their lead – only to be denied by a fantastic save from Callum Dobson.
With ‘The Star’ growing more and more frustrated, it seemed as if they would go into the half-time break behind on the scoresheet. Ogbewe had other ideas though, as in the 45thminute he raced in-behind the Yarm defence and curled the ball perfectly into the far corner, in Thierry Henry esc fashion.
Ogbewe’s equaliser would mean it would be all square at the break, 1-1.
The second half started similar to the first with neither side taking a foothold in the game, the first significant chancehowever, would fall the way of the away side. As in the 57th minute, the Yarm number nine fired a shot destined for the bottom corner only to be denied by yet another brilliant save by Dobson.
As the game wore on Blue Star would be the ones to push for a winner with Lanning coming extremely close to scoring in the 75th minute, seeing his shot go inches past the post.
Five minutes later, however, Blue Star would get the goal they desired with substitute Holmes firing his shot into the top corner, to give his side a deserved lead.
Following the goal, Yarm would push for a late equaliser but Blue Star would hold strong and ultimately come away with all three points – making it back-to-back wins to start the season.