North Shields succumbed to a 0-2 defeat at home to Bishop Auckland on Saturday
The first meeting between the two sides in two years, The Two Blues enjoyed large periods of possession, opening the scoring in the first half with a header from Gary Martin.
After successfully thwarting attacks from the visitors for most of the second half, The Robins went forward in the final minutes, leading to the visitors taking advantage of the extra space and score through Lee Hume.
For much of the first half, Bishop worked both wings well as they bombarded the Shields box with crosses, Dane Burlace in particular was a problem on the right wing as most of the final third action was led by him.
Whilst the majority of these crosses were cleared away by either Stephen Hall, who was a center-half for most of this game, or Dan Cherry, there was one mistake at the back led to the opening goal of the game. Burlace delivered an outswinging ball which was allowed to bounce in the box unchallenged toward Gary Martin, who controlled with his chest and nodded into the bottom right corner.
The few times Shields did bomb forward in the half was often led by Jordan Lashley driving forward in the middle, but the visiting backline performed very well to prevent any clear attempts on goal.
HALF-TIME: North Shields 0-1 Bishop Auckland
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, with The Two Blues continuing to work the ball to the right wing, giving Evan Blaney a lot to do at left-back.
Within the opening minute of the half they almost had another from this avenue, this time Craig Moody got onto the end of a cross at the far-post and blasted the ball over the crossbar with an open net in front of him.
Brian Smith made several substitutes as his side looked to make a breakthrough, Carr replaced Mason ten minutes before Wanless slotted in at left-back for Blaney. Carr himself would later pick up and injury and have to be replaced by Dean Holmes.
Late in the game with a sense of now or never, The Robins shifted their setup by moving Stephen Hall up top alongside Dan Wilson and began to aggressively move forward. Sampson tried to place the ball onto the head of Wilson towards the end but goalkeeper Shane Bland was able to get in front of the forward to claim.
In stoppage time, Burlace thwarted a Shields attack at the half-way line, leading to Martin squaring the ball across goal to Liam Jarvie, who struck into the top-right corner from almost unmissable range
FULL-TIME: North Shields 0-2 Bishop Auckland
Shields XI: Elliott, Sampson, Blaney (Wanless, 69′), Cherry, Hall, Milmore, Forster, Lish, Wilson, Mason (Carr, 60′, (Holmes, 86′)), Lashley
