19^th November 2022, Spennymoor Town v Runcorn Linnets FC : 3-2

Trips to the North East are something of a tradition for Runcorn Linnets, and this one was historic, as the club visited National League North outfit Spennymoor Town.

A run to the second half of the Isuzu FA Trophy was record-breaking progress for the club.

It proved suitably memorable for the fantastic and deafening Linnets travelling support.

They never let up for two hours (or during the six-hour round trip).

Miles and miles of flooded fields on the journey to County Durham, after surely the wettest week of the season so far, made the sight of an excellent green surface at Brewery Field all the more impressive.

Equally welcoming were the locals and the Spennymoor stewards who were friendly and went out of their way to help us travelling fans.

A strong Linnets starting line-up had two omissions. Lewis Doyle took to the bench, having sustained an injury late in Tuesday's Cheshire Senior Cup victory over Chester, and James Hooper, who remained cup-tied, was getting in some dual-registered game time with West Didsbury & Chorlton.

A team facing opposition from two tiers higher needs a solid start. Linnets didn't get it. Tentative defending against the Moors' first attack, and a Sam Heathcote pass played too short and slow for Ally Brown, allowed Rob Ramshaw to interecept, and set up Glen Taylor for an easy finish. There were less than two minutes on the clock.

A minute later, it could have been two for Moors. Taylor was again given too much time and space, for a shot which Danny Taberner did well to guide past the post.

Linnets fans, amassed noisily behind the goal at the other end, were begging their team to wake up.

In just the fifth minute, they did. Eden Gumbs burst up the left, his ball into Ryan Brooke flicked on deftly for Jamie Rainford. Jamie returned the compliment, and Brooky left an attempted Moors offside trap for dead, finishing from inside the six-yard box.

We started again from scratch, but Linnets didn't learn from the reprieve, and they showed their Vanarama North opponents too much respect for the whole of the first half.

After Moors' young 'keeper Harry Flatters had picked the ball out of the net, he wouldn't touch it again until he fielded a back pass, three minutes before half-time.

Linnets were almost in again in the eighth minute, as Gumbs and Clarke played a one-two into the area, but Eden was judged to have fouled his marker as he turned to shoot.

The home side took complete control for most of the first half, with Runcorn marking man for man, and trying to prevent quick-passing Spennymoor possession from breaking through.

But the difference between two tiers of the pyramid was most evident in Moors' prompt control of loose balls, and finding more options when in possession.

If there is an answer to that conundrum, it might lie in the words of my managerial hero, the late Brian Clough. He said: 'They can't score if they haven't got the ball, and you can't score if you haven't, so… get the ball'. I have removed one word.

But Spennymoor had the ball, and the longer that continued, the more inevitable were the consequences.

Louis Hayes was shown a yellow card for a tackle at the corner of the penalty area, Danny Tabs falling on the low free-kick.

Man-to-man Runcorn marking kept things level, and conceded three corners, two of them punched away by Tabs, the other headed clear by Heathcote.

Blackett and Anderson swapped passes to set up Tom Allan for a shot that flashed wide.

The rearguard action survived until the 27th minute, when defensive backing off allowed Mark Anderson enough space to bend a fine 25-yard shot beyond Tabs and into the net.

Spennymoor continued to monopolise the ball, with their opponents retreating and trying to deny the space for a telling pass. Taberner made a great point-blank save inside the six-yard box from Blackett, and it seemed that the best case scenario from blanket Runcorn defending would be a hard fought 2-1 defeat.

Just after the half-hour mark, Paul Blackett did find the net for Moors, but only after Glen Taylor had elbowed Sean O'Mahony in the head. A yellow card suggested that referee Jack Hall considered it to be a reckless, but not deliberate, offence.

Three home corners came in quick succession, with a loud appeal for a penalty for handball between them, and then ten minutes before the break, Blackett did secure his first goal in Spennymoor black and white.

Lufudu played a ball ahead of Ramshaw's run, and he crossed for Blackett to finish with ease from inside the six-yard box.

Even a one-goal deficit at the break would have suggested that a change of approach by the NPL West side was essential.A two-goal margin meant that continuing a backs-to-the-wall strategy would achieve nothing better than damage limitation.

It should have been 4-1 at half-time, but Taylor blasted a gift over the bar, from the rebound of a great Tabs save from Tom Allan's shot across the area. Ryan Brooke was upended in the centre circle in first-half added time, and he got the first touch on Taberner's free-kick into the Moors area, but James Curtis cleared.

Pre-match discussions among optimistic Linnets had suggested that their side had a real chance, against a team that might be in a division two steps higher, but was struggling somewhat in 17th place.

There were 33 places on the pyramid between the two teams. To offer some perspective, based on current league tables, that equates to Peterborough United playing at Everton in the FA Cup. Ignoring any predictable jokes that Everton would be the underdogs, most people would think that Peterborough would stand a chance, but that would surely depend on the League One side channelling the thoughts of Brian Clough. Get the ball.

I don't know whether it was that kind of thinking that turned events at Brewery Field into a classic 'game of two halves', but things were certainly very different after the break.

Linnets boss Dave Wild executed a reshuffle. Dapo Olarewaju and Tom Moore started the second half, in place of Zack Clarke and Louis Hayes. That suggested a switch to the three-at-the-back formation that had proved highly effective in the 2-0 home win over Kidsgrove, seven days earlier.

As it had done then, it freed up full-backs Brown and Short to get forward, and while it might be risky in terms of leaving potential space for opposition attacks in numbers, if you don't have the ball…

But even before we had an opportunity to see whether it would prove effective, Spennymoor started the second half asleep, as Linnets had the first.

Straight from the kick-off, a lazy 'hospital' backpass to Harry Flatters enabled an alert Jamie Rainford to nip in and poke the ball past the 'keeper into the net.

For Moors fans, that might have appeared to be an unfortunate blip, before their team would resume domination of proceedings. But they were yet to meet Dapo Olarewaju.

As he has done so often before, Dapo instigated mounting panic among the opposing defence. Every ball delivered into the left side of the Moors half resulted in an electric charge towards goal, and the options open to the Spennymoor defence were to concede corners and throw-ins, or to foul him.

The first five minutes after half-time featured more Runcorn attacks than we had seen in the whole of the first half, and Moors had to readjust quickly to the idea that some defending would be needed, if they were going to ensure their progress in the competition.

Sean O'Mahony got his head to a corner won by a Dapo run into the area, but he was underneath it, and it looped high.

Sidi Sanogo's charge through the Moors half was halted by a foul, outside the left edge of the area. A superb Ryan Brooke free-kick was heading for glory, but Flatters pulled off a brilliant save, palming the ball over the bar.

The corner from the right was followed by another from the left, which Sam Heathcote headed just wide of the far post. We were now watching a very different game.

As their team took the upper hand, the noise from the Linnets fans, who had recamped to the open side of the stadium, oddly subsided for a while. Perhaps their feelings of 'carry on regardless' were being overtaken by the anticipation of an unlikely turnaround.

Moors' first attempt of the second half was ballooned well high. Then both sides picked up a yellow card, Ramshaw for a late challenge, and O'Mahony for recriminations.

The ball was still spending time in the Linnets half, but the visiting defence was winning it more, rather than just blocking its path. That enabled more Linnets advances into opposition territory.

Sean O'Mahony lost his footing as he attempted to tackle Ramshaw at the edge of the Linnets area, and the resulting through ball was fired narrowly wide by Anderson. From the goal-kick, Linnets built a five-pass move from Eden on the right, via Sidi, to Dapo on the left, but his cross was headed away by Curtis.

Dapo was causing increasing desperation among the right side of the Moors defence, and fouls on the Runcorn sub were becoming standard practice. The referee considered a brief ticking off to be sufficient to deter Dylan Boyle from felling Dapo from behind. It wasn't, and when Boyle did exactly the same thing again, two minutes later, his name went into Mr Hall's book.

Neither calculated foul qualified to be called a tackle, and both deserved a yellow card. That would have left ten Moors resisting a mounting wave of Runcorn pressure for the final 13 minutes.

They were stretched as it was, with a minimum of two men required to prevent Dapo's runs at the left side of the area. More free-kicks resulted, along with a string of James Short corners from that side, as he supported Dapo's efforts to break into dangerous territory.

With just six minutes remaining, after a great 30-yard solo run, Dapo passed right to Jamie Rainford, and the 'keeper did well to block his shot from inside the area.

Retrieving the ball for Moors goal-kicks and throw-ins was taking an eternity, as was debate about who should take the latter. These activities, together with a couple of mysterious injuries to home players, became even more protracted after we entered four minutes of added time.

Shorty continued to fire in corners from the left, with Heathcote, O'Mahony and Brooke all making headed contact, but Curtis and Taylor doing enough to prevent them finding the target.

A 30-yard ball into the box by Shorty was either a hopeful shot or a through-ball hit too long. Either way, it didn't trouble Flatters.

Roared on by the Murdishaw Massive, Linnets had laid siege on the Moors third for most of the final 20 minutes. The last hope of turning that into a second penalty shoot-out victory in five days over Vanarama North opposition, fell to Dapo Olarewaju once more. His run inside the left edge of the area was tracked step for step by John Lufudu, and rather than risk bringing Dapo down, he went to ground himself.

Mr Hall was convinced it was a foul, despite no contact from Dapo, and moments later his last whistle of the afternoon signalled Spennymoor's passage into Tuesday's draw for the third round.

Moors coach Lewis Dickman hailed his team's commanding performance in the first half, and lamented the fact that they hadn't repeated it in the second. It would have been realistic to have noted that the difference lay not in Moors losing interest, but in Linnets taking a completely different approach.

After the break, they appeared to view the opposition as a team who were 17th in the table, rather than one from two leagues above them. The difference that this made to the relative positivity of both sides was tangible.

In any event, the confidence gained from ultimately excellent performances against Chester and Spennymoor will stand Linnets in good stead for Tuesday, and the belated NPL West visit of the full-timers of table-topping Macclesfield.

Runcorn Linnets:Danny Taberner, Ally Brown, James Short, Zack Clarke (Dapo Olarewaju, 45 mins), Sean O'Mahony, Sam Heathcote, Sidi Sanogo, Louis Hayes (Tom Moore, 45 mins), Jamie Rainford, Ryan Brooke, Eden Gumbs. Subs not used: Macaulay Clifton, Josh Roberts, Lewis Doyle, Louis Holden, Adam Moseley.

Attendance:625.

NB. The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Runcorn Linnets FC or its Board.