That was one interesting night!

The North East presented one of it's persistent freezing cold monsoons just around kick off and then the fun started...

We looked about even with Gateshead in terms of attacking intent until Joe scored off an excellent cross. After that, one way traffic doesn't even begin to describe it. We probably got away with several fouls that should have received cards, it was very borderline to say the least whether Butcher stopped the ball with his arm or chest in a one on one outside the box and were regularly being torn apart down our right. Butcher made several good stops, a couple of which he could only push up or straight out which led to the sorts of melees normally seen in primary school playground football. I cannot remember seeing a similar half where the combination of good saves, deliberate blocks, accidental blocks, the woodwork, abysmal refereeing and piss poor finishing all combined to let us go in leading rather tha several down.

I believe the euphemism for the penalty is 'soft', you are overjoyed if you get them, pretty narked if they are against. However, the key point in the match was Daisy getting his subs on early. Loui on for Kurtis stopped McClaren being overrun and Jake and Luis added a bit more speed about the centre of the park and, whilst Gateshead looked the more likely to score, it was a pretty even game from then on so congrats to Daisy for making the tactical change. A good point in the end as most of the sides below us also got something out of the evening.

Unlike other occasions I can think of, we had a serious dose of luck and built on it well.