27/11/2004
Tyneside Amateur League Division 2

IJLW Brazil
Wilkinson, Davison, Churchley, Walker, Kennedy (Katirai 80), Paterson, McCartney, Creighton (Freath 65), Haigh, Thompson (Ho 75), Bull.

Brazil were much better than the previous week and fully deserved to go home with a point. The first half was goalless but both sides had chances. Lee Wilkinson made a couple of fine saves and all of Brazil’s defenders made important blocks, interceptions and tackles.

At the other end Brazil came close to scoring a few times, but the first chance was the closest they came to breaking the deadlock. Chris McCartney intercepted a poor back pass and his first touch took him past the keeper but left an acute angle. His tight volley came back off the crossbar and Cramlington cleared it. Apart from that effort, Brazil were limited to long range efforts from Matthew Creighton, Matty Bull, Chris Thompson and Dave Churchley.

In the second half, Brazil saw a lot more of the ball and duly created a lot more openings. Mark Kennedy’s free kick from the left glanced off a defender’s head to Bull who volleyed Brazil into the lead. The best of the rest of the chances fell to McCartney, Thompson and Shaun Haigh. McCartney ran through the entire defence and just dragged his shot slightly wide of the far post, with the keeper beaten. Following a corner, Kennedy, on the edge of the box, passed out to Churchley on the right. The skipper’s first time cross fell to Haigh’s feet. He sidestepped a defender and managed to get his shot on target but the keeper was equal to it. For the second week running, Thompson was denied by a remarkable save. Kennedy had burst free into the box and unselfishly squared the ball to Thompson as the keeper advanced to him. Thompson’s shot was just kept out by the keeper’s trailing leg as he threw himself across the goalmouth.

It was certainly not all one-way traffic, however, with Brazil needing to do quite a lot of defending too. The equalizer came from a long ball up to the superb young striker who laid it off to a midfield runner who had not been tracked. A neat finish past Lee Wilkinson just trickled over the line before Kennedy could get back to it. The hosts could have claimed all three points but were denied by some excellent saves by man of the match Wilkinson and some good blocks by Gary Davison’s testicle, Churchley’s shoulder and Kennedy’s thigh (on the goal line).