Seaham Red Star 0-3 West Auckland Town FC
A ten-man Red Star side found themselves comfortably beaten 3-0 by West Auckland Town FC on Tuesday night.
A penalty and a red card for Joshua Baggs, after punching the ball off the line, in the 12th minute paved the way for West Auckland early on.
Arron Thompson converted the penalty which was followed by a brace from clinical forward Jordan Blinco saw the visitors three goals up at half time.
The away side managed to see out the match in the second half despite a slightly improved Red Star performance, however the damage had already been done.
Red Star coaching staff were clearly aggravated at the officials throughout the match, after they believed West Auckland full back, Andre Bennett, should have seen a second yellow as he was deemed to have dove in the box to try and win a penalty in what honestly seemed like a foul.
With the score only being 0-1 at this point, this could have been a possible turning point in the tie without doubt.
Red Star never got going in the match, not having a single shot on target in the first half.
In contrast, West Auckland Town were much more clinical and creative in their play, cutting the home side open on the break consistently.
West Auckland winger, Anthony Bell, was a constant thorn in the side of Red Star’s defence and pulled off a great assist to slide the ball through to Blinco after 41 minutes to put his side two goals up.
The Star were unable to limit the damage before half time as a deep Liam Hegarty cross for West Auckland found it’s way Blinco once again who calmy volleyed the ball past Jennison and in off the post in first half added time.
Despite improvement in attacking output from Red Star in the second half, most notably through full-back Joe Hailes, clear-cut chances remained hard to come by.
Seaham Red Star: Jennison, Baggs, Hailes, Heywood, Nelson, Patterson, Kerridge, Bott, Anderson, Robinson, Sayer
West Auckland Town FC: Guthrie, Hegarty, Bennett, Thompson, Browne, Potter, Scott, Parnaby, Blinco, Mitchell, Bell
