NORTHALLERTON Town conceded nine goals inside two games, a statistic that sees Town hovering above the bottom three with the worst goal difference in the league.
Town were well-beaten in midweek by a fluid-looking Whitley Bay, who ran out 6-2 winners over their visitors, while on Saturday, Town lost 3- 0, again on their travels – this time against Dunston Fed.
Town were under pressure straight from the kick-off on Tuesday, when a botched clearance was thundered straight past a static Stuart Dawson and beyond the helpless goalkeeper.
That lead was increased inside ten minutes as Dawson’s clearance went out for a corner which Bay scored from. Two became three soon after, but Town rallied in the second half and a Chris Walker cross evaded everyone and dropped into the far corner to reduce the arrears.
Bay soon restored their advantage through another defensive mistake, but Town were still not beaten. Sean Joseph’s pull back fell perfectly for John Ryan who made no mistake to make it 4-2.
Town had Bay under pressure for the first time and Northallerton’s Chillingsworth was very unlucky not to score during this period of play, but the pressure was to be in vain when Town were victims of a controversial offside decision, a decision which Shaune Clarke argued with and was subsequently sent off by the referee.
Ryan did score again, but only after Bay had further extended their lead to six goals.
On Saturday, Town paid the price of being a man down from 30 minutes and were a shadow of the side that won in midweek.
Town should have been in front after just five minutes when Gary Shardha broke into the box from the right, but hit his shot straight at the goalkeeper and the chance was gone.
Dunston went ahead with a well taken goal to make it 1-0.
Town had Chillingsworth sent off for foul and abusive language following an incident in which he was pulled back in a scoring opportunity and, though he got the shot away, it was with much reduced power because of a foul on him.
Town started the second half well, and Stuart Jackson was unlucky to have a great header saved within minutes of the restart, but Town conceded another two goals to see Dunston run out easy winners.
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