Away day blues for Hexham

Only two chances were created by them in the first period , one a long shot from university bound Paul McLean who was playing his last game before heading off to continue his studies and the other was after Scott Coates fired the ball across the goal which only needed a touch towards the target but this never came. In between these two chances the defence was kept busy mainly from the midfield men of Wallsend who was running the show.

An early chance came for the home side when a snapshot from outside the area was well saved by keeper Heads which was rebounding back into the danger area before Michael Robson managed to hack clear to safety.

After twenty-four minutes the breakthrough came after the Hexham midfield lost the ball and could not get back in time to cover and an inch perfect pass found Ryan Arnott who gave Heads no chance. Ryan is in excellent form at the moment as this was his second goal in two matches. He was on target last week when Wallsend put first division South Shields out of the League Cup.

Before half time Sean Heads saved Hexham again with another fine save as he palmed an effort over the crossbar, he was well on his way to a deserved man o the match award.

The second half was much like the first with Wallsend in control and Hexham showing very little as an attacking unit. Although the home team had plenty of the play it was their misfortune that they did not increase their advantage.

This was a combination of a tighter defence in the second half and not taking their chances when they came along. Hexham did emerge from their shell as the match went on and had an opportunity to level when they were awarded a penalty when a defender handled the ball when under pressure from a corner.

But when confidence is low things just don't go your way when leading scorer for the past three seasons Iain Strachan was unable to convert the spot kick. A change of formation was required and striker Thomas North was brought on to replace a defender, to make his first appearance in four games after an early season injury had kept him out of the side.

This did set Wallsend back as Hexham looked for an equaliser to take back to Tynedale, for a moment it looked like they had managed to squeeze a point out of the game when Neil Tiffin gave Scott Coates an opportunity to shoot at the goal and as the effort was heading towards the target Jamie McManee managed to divert it past Mick Garwood in the home goal.

The celebrations were cut short by the linesman flag being raised for offside. That was the last of any goalmouth action and Hexham were left to lick their wounds and wonder just what went wrong on the journey home.

Next week it back to Newcastle when Chemfica will provide the opposition when some of these injuries will have cleared up and Hexham can get back to the form which they were showing in the first month of the season