Saturday 12th October 2019, FA Vase first round

Shildon 2 (Steel 3, Cragg 45)
West 0 (Gavin sent off 10)
Att: 257

Ten-man West were ushered out of the FA Vase by Shildon at Dean Street.

Brad Cooke’s side were up against it after a nightmare opening ten minutes that saw the hosts take an early lead before Lee Gavin was controversially dismissed.

West battled gamely and restricted the Railwaymen to just one further goal but never looked likely to pull off what would have been an astonishing comeback, and the wait for an appearance in the Vase second round goes on.

West’s task, already imposing against one of the tournament favourites, became even more challenging when Shildon opened the scoring inside 180 seconds. A cross from the left wasn’t fully cleared and when the ball broke to Nathan Steel on the edge of the box, he buried his shot low past Andrew Jones.

The afternoon continued to unravel in the tenth minute – Lee Gavin contested a loose ball on the halfway line, and the referee surprised many inside Dean Street when he ruled that the West man had used excessive force.

After this flurry of incident the game meandered towards half time but just as West were preparing to go into the break with just a single-goal deficit, Shildon broke the visitors’ resistance when Danny Cragg converted a low cross.

West continued to show plenty of effort and organisation in what was in truth a fairly incident-free second period, bar Jamie Forbes having a header tipped over by Shildon keeper Shaun Newbrook and the hosts having a goal ruled out for a push at the other end.

A result that had been decided a long time prior was eventually confirmed after five minutes of stoppage time, and while the home side will expect this to be a single step on a road to Wembley, West will look to draw a line under two defeats in five days when New Mills visit Brookburn Road in the Macron Cup next weekend.

West: A. Jones, Cook, Cooper (Tinker 74), C. Jones, Forbes, Eckersley, Grimshaw (A. Woods 66), Gavin, Cottee, Boland (Middleton 55), Moloney. Not used: Steer, Argent-Barnes.

West media player of the match: Zac Cooper.