GATESHEAD gave an excellent performance and took Barrow to the wire
before bowing out of the Setanta Shield at the Holker Street Stadium
last night.
Barrow are in the top half of Blue Square
Conference but the Tynesiders more than matched the home side and it
was not until stoppage time that Barrow made certain of victory.
Luck
was perhaps with Ian Bogie's side midway through the first period when
the ball appeared to strike Wayne Phillips' arm but the referee waved
aside appeals for a penalty. The referee made a good decision in the
41st minute when he played a good advantage and when the ball was
delivered into the penalty area, Richard Broadie headed wide of
goalkeeper Jack Norton.
It took Gateshead just four minutes to
equalise. A well-worked attack ended with the ball breaking loose to
former Gretna striker Lee Novak and he fired past Alan Martin from the
edge of the penalty area. Graeme Armstrong had a one-on-one chance in
the second half but fired over the crossbar and in another impressive
raid Novak and Craig Nelthorpe combined only to find keeper Martin on
form.
It was no more than Gateshead deserved, taking the tie
into extra time but they went behind with substitute Paul Tait beating
James Curtis and Norton.
Towards the end, Gateshead threw
everyone forward and in the last minute of injury time left the way
open for Jason Walker to simply fire past Norton.
The Journal
