02 April 2005
Drab draw
by Ken Milgate
Thornaby
0
Had City decided to contract labour to give the stadium a lick of paint this afternoon, the drying process would have increasingly become a more appealing counter-attraction. This was a very poor game with few goalmouth incidents, largely weak efforts on goal and a regular threat to airborne activity from wayward strikes.
City threatened early from wide positions, Nathan Jameson’s excellent early corners causing mayhem in the Thornaby box and Robbie Herbert sadly finding lead in his boots when a Steven Stewart deep free kick found him unmarked in the box.
On 20minutes another Jameson corner almost produced a goal when Stewart’s knock-down landed at Paul Stephenson’s feet, but the latter’s first-time effort nestled comfortably in Adrian Swan’s midriff.
For all their
running and effort City were letting themselves down with their final ball,
while the visitors passed better but found the classy Stephenson and the resolute
Craig Rand in dominant form. Only the
latter’s timely interception halted a Thornaby breakaway minutes before the end
of a dreary first half. Kevin Wolfe was
alert at the near post to Jamie Clarke’s snap-shot, but on the hour the City
keeper was at his immaculate best to thwart Ritchie Storr in a one-on-one
situation after the otherwise faultless
Three substitutes did nothing to change City’s fortunes; nor did a similar change of personnel favour the visitors.
The tedium of
the game was matched only by the howler of a miss two minutes from time: Swan
could only parry a Mark Patterson shot, but Michael Mackay and Justin Keegan
contrived to miss an open goal with the keeper flat on the deck. Swan was, however, perfectly positioned to
tip over a
As the referee blew the final whistle, the smell of fresh paint would have given some sense to the game, even if only that of smell.
Jameson (
Thornaby – Swan, Shaw, Leadbitter,
Lynch, Cossavella, Gallagher (Casey 17), Yale (Talukder 86),
Oliver, Clarke, Storr, Arnold (Larkin 70)