THE DURHAM EXCHANGE

Samba Nottinghamshire Senior League

Premier Division

GEDLING SOUTHBANK FC 2 BILBOROUGH TOWN FC 3

Att 34

Last season was a success between the Durham FA and the Nottinghamshire FA in swopping over officials for a weekend in the season and this weekend began with two young assistant referees on this game.

Gedling Southbank havent had the best of seasons with their reserve team having to fold and their First team struggling to get results but with much improved performances of late, whilst Bilborough Town have had a big shake up this season and have invested in youth with a blend of the odd bit of experiance.

As you can imagine, the crowd was mainly made up of referees both both counties, along with local hoppers Malc Storer, Richard Lane and also Kizz Everard who had travelled down from Doncaster to take in his 190th game of the season.

A fantastic gesture by Bilborough Town FC players were to wear odd socks(orange on one foot and Black on the other) for the awareness of  Down Syndrome week.

The game began with the visitors cutting out the early chances , so it came as no surprise after just 8 minutes when captain MICKI BEECH put his side in front. Bilborough pressed forward for more with Law, Gough and Majewski going close.

The Second Half and the homesters came out looking like a different side and pressed and after 57 minutes got a just deserved equaliser when TOM JEFFRIES slid the ball past Liam Lee to make it 1-1.

After 62 minutes, Bilborough gained a free kick but something must have been said to which the match referee sent Jordan Percival to the sin bin for 10 minutes, wow those 10 minutes really livened up the game, as on 64 minutes came the goal of the game when a cross bar was volleyed home from outside the area by DJOUKS DJOUKANG to put the visitors back in front.

On 70 minutes, Town extended their lead when a beautiful chip in to the corner of the net by GRATIAS KATEGA made it 3-1.

Almost straight away, Southbank pushed forward again and TOM JEFFRIES got his and his sides second goal of the night to reduce the scoreline to 2-3.

Both teams then both went for it and had chances to add to their tallies, the closest was when Charlie Curtis struck the Town crossbar on 87 minutes, but it was Town who went home with the three points in a very entertaining game.

May I thank Gedling Southbank player James Needham for the kind donation of £2 to the Blogs Charity - Forget Me Not, a small charity that supports people with dementia and makes the running total now up to a fantastic £1,211.70p