Wednesday 12th February 2025
With the 1s having a week off, the 2s and 3s were the entertainers of Maiden Castle again, as they both faced off on home (artificial) turf.
The 3s were the first to kick off, in a must-win game agains the league leaders. To have a chance at winning the league themselves, they'd have to beat Teeside and then hope that they continued to drop points. The first step, however, was beating Teeside...
The 2s were in a more luxurious position, having already wrapped up the league title. This was a chance for an extended celebration, playing the last home match of the year, with most of the club down to watch and support.
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Durham (2s) vs Leeds Beckett: 19:15 (h)
Written by George Gompertz
Having not been scheduled a game last Wednesday, our league title celebrations were allowed to continue for an extra week. Fear not, however, as some of the boys maintained their sharpness by playing college ‘Floodlit’ games during the week; Fred Alcock, Ben Crew, and Tom Boothroyd’s Collingwood got the better of Oscar Cooke, Owen Birkett, and Caine McCartney’s Van Mildert side.
We hoped that this week’s fixtures would be a continuation of our champions celebrations, playing our last home game of the season, with the rest of the club watching in the stands, against a team we beat comfortably away from home.
With Leeds registered on the BUCS website to wear white shirts, we brought out the purple playing kit to avoid any problems. When it was revealed that Leeds would, however, actually be wearing purple, we went back to the locker to get the white kit, only to discover it wasn’t there.
Worse still, having persisted with the purple kit, we turned out to be short four pairs of shorts and, with the 3s having worn the other purple kit earlier that day, it looked like we might have to do the most village act of all; giving your shorts to the oncoming substitute.
It all worked itself out in the end and, after discovering that the clean and dry white kit was currently in someone’s house, Fred Alcock selflessly drove up Hallgarth Street to retrieve it.
So, we walked out in the unusual (but remarkably aesthetic) strip of white shirts, white shorts, and purple socks.
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I walked out to the pitch 2 minutes after the match had kicked-off as my warm-up with Marko had run over so much that I was still feeding him crosses when the referee blew his whistle to get the captains to do the toss.
“Ol, I’ll be five minutes”, he shouted as he ran into the changing room to put on his socks, shinpads, and shirt.
As I walked out, I was surprised to see that no football was being played but, instead, there was a Leeds Beckett player on the floor receiving medical attention.
“What happened?”, I asked.
As I looked over to see blood streaming down his face, and a rather concerned Chris Maiello rushing him inside, it became apparent that he’d had a flailing elbow to the face. An unfortunate start to the game for the visitors.
Yet even more surprising than that, when I finally made it around to the bench, I was told that he was the second player to go off injured – within the first 2 minutes…
Not only that, but that this was, somehow, worse. Going for a shot, Boothroyd managed to nip in first and get the ball, meaning that the Beckett player ended up kicking Booth’s foot instead of the ball.
The result of this was a massive bump on the top of his foot and a trip to Durham Hospital. Not a good evening; we wish him well.
Eventually, some football was played but, after watching five minutes, perhaps it would have been best if it wasn’t. At least, that was the view of Maiello, who wasn’t keen on what he was watching.
A goal-mouth scramble in which Durham were unable to get a shot away and Beckett were unable to clear was a good example of the quality of the game so far. It could be a long 90 minutes, we thought.
Well, it would only feel longer when the visitors took the lead with a very well worked goal, including a lovely combination of one-touch football and a tidy finish. This wasn’t a planned part of the celebration.
To say the goal got us going would be an overstatement, but it may have sparked us up enough to find an equaliser. With the midfield having been criticised for moving the ball too slowly, and some of them even being placed on a two-touch limit as a result, Anthony Selvadoray decided to liven the game up a bit.
Beating one man and then playing a quick one-two in midfield, he then dinked a delightful ball over the top for Booth to run onto. We all expected to see the net to bulge but, instead, Booth (incredibly unselfishly) squared it to Oscar Schuller, who simply couldn’t miss.
Half-Time: Durham (2s) 1 – 1 Leeds Beckett
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At half-time, Chris gave a team talk full of wisdom, combining caution with ambition, regaling tails of a 2s teams from years gone by who stuttered after winning the league but, ultimately, pulled through for the ‘perfect season’.
The team talk didn’t get the reaction it deserved as, after just 15 minutes of the second half, Beckett went into the lead. The nifty midfielder did well to beat two men in the centre of the field, before breaking away and squaring it to two unmarked purple shirts. With time for one of them to take a touch and lay it off to the other, Marko stood no chance of keeping it out.
It went from bad to worse just 7 minutes after that when Beckett won a penalty with a good change of pace. With more composure than necessary for this level of football, the Beckett left-back stuttered his run up and calmly stroked the ball into the vacant side of the goal. This was far from an extended celebration…
As we restarted play and tried to force our way through their block, the midfielder who played a big part in their last two goals shouted out to his team, “We can do this all day boys.”
As it turns out, they couldn’t.
***
In the space of 10 minutes, Durham had gone from 2 goals down to 1 goal up.
Showing the intensity, drive, and precision that made us champions, everything we tried seemed to work. It was a joy to watch.
After some interplay with Zane Liles, Schuller beat his man down the line before delivering a low and powerful delivery across the box with his left foot. As he often is, Booth was ready and waiting to flick it effortlessly in from 6 yards out.
As he tussled with the keeper to get the ball back, he did so to a soundtrack of ‘BOOOOOOOOOTTHHH’ from the fans – not for the first time this season.
A couple minutes later and Ant was at the heart of the action again, both gesturing for Freddy Alcock to make the run in behind, and then finding him perfectly with a pin-point ball over the top.
Fred only needed one touch to cut the ball back to Ethan Woodcock, who opened up his body and guided it into the far corner; a carbon copy of his goal against Liverpool a few months ago.
Less than five minutes later and the table-turning was complete, courtesy of Schuller and Booth again; who else..?
Booth closed down the Beckett CB and, before he’d realised that the ball had been nicked off him, the Durham front-man was bearing down on goal.
From a little wider than last time, he squared it to Schuller again but, putting a little too much on the pass, Schulls couldn’t quite divert it goalwards. However, in a desperate attempt to win the ball, the Beckett man absolutely wiped out the German winger, and the ref awarded a penalty.
Schulls took the responsibility, sending the keeper the wrong way and sending Durham into the lead.
This caused the crowd to spark up again, this time with a merciless chant of, “Leeds, Leeds are falling apart again.”
***
Only a couple of minutes after that, the crowd, once again, performed the Poznan, jumping up and down with their backs to the pitch with great enthusiasm.
On the bench, I wondered who was the ringleader, especially having so much confidence after only just 70 minutes. “How have they started the Poznan if Ryan isn’t there to lead it?”, I asked.
Well, unbeknownst to us at the time but, having been substituted, Ryan went to the changing rooms to have a shower and, instead of joining us on the other side of the bench, he went to sit in the stands and add to the atmosphere – a move that seemed to confuse most people, but was most welcome.
The game hadn’t gone quite how we may have expected but, perhaps the way in which we won it made it even more enjoyable. To show the determination and belief to not only get back into the game, but to win it, was admirable.
Moreso than that, even at 1-3 down, I think everyone on 3G3 believed that we were going to win the game.
As we walked off the pitch, all the other lads in the club formed a tunnel, cheering as each player walked through. A fitting tribute to a fantastic season, and the perfect way to end our last home match of the season.
Perhaps it was an elongated champions celebration, after all.
Full-Time: Durham (2s) 4 - 3 Leeds Beckett
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Player of the Match: Oscar Schuller; a dominant performance from the left winger, netting twice and setting one up for his mate, his leadership was a big reason that we managed to turn it around.
(Honourable mentions to Booth, who was relentless and set up a couple of goals, and Ant, who added intensity into the midfield and created a couple of goals with outrageous passes)
Line-Up: Marko Porozovs; Oscar Cooke; Nicolai Lewis; Oli Williams; Ryan Cook; Owen Birkett; Zane Liles; Anthony Selvadoray; Ethan Woodcock (Goal); Tom Boothroyd (Goal); Oscar Schuller (Goal x2)
Substitutes: Freddy Alcock; Max Nissim; George Gompertz; Finn Moore; Adam Browne
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Durham (3s) vs Teeside: 13:00 (h)
Written by Jamie Wood
The 3s came into this game up against a strong side in Teesside 1s, who sit comfortably at the top of the table. Knowing that Teesside would secure the league title with a single point from this game, dropping points simply wasn’t an option if we wanted to keep our promotion hopes alive.
Earlier in the season, the 3s travelled away to Teesside – suffering a 2-1 defeat, so it was essential for us to make up for it on our home turf.
We started the day with our usual routine: damp kits; Paddy expressing his 'great' taste in music; and Checketts whipping out a blue thermal to go nicely with our purple kit. Ollie and Mez set the tone with a solid warm up and some wise words reiterating the importance of winning this game and putting the pressure on Teesside.
The game began and it was clear straight away, that we were the better footballing side. We enjoyed the ball to begin with and looked dangerous with Fergus and Sacha on the wings.
The only threat Teesside showed was when the ball was lumped forward, and their 10-foot-tall striker chased it down. However, the defence of myself, Rory, Paddy and Loosemoore remained solid and conceded very little in the first half.
The first goal came as Checketts played a really good ball through to Harry who took it around the keeper and finished nicely from a tight angle. Throughout the first half, the midfield of Webb-Wood, Twedds and Checketts enjoyed a lot of possession meaning that we were in control.
As a result of this, a ball was played through to Fergus who, on debut, put a really good finish past the keeper to make it 2-0.
Half-Time: Durham (3s) 2 - 0 Teeside
***
Going into half time we were 2-0 up and quite happy with our first half performance. Some more wise words from Ollie and Mez meant that we were ready for the second half, knowing that we would have to battle at times to see this game through.
We started the second half a little bit shaky; misplaced passes and a lack of communication meant that we were making the game more difficult for ourselves than it needed to be. Luckily, Paddy Harvey knows how to run the clock down; he probably spent close to 15 minutes of the second half walking back and forth collecting the ball to take a throw in.
Webb-Wood also did a really good job throughout the second half, holding the ball up and winning fouls just to take the pressure of us. Sacha played well with his £270 Spiderman boots that he got for free apparently – to his disappointment, a player on the other team also wore a pair of these 'really cool' boots.
Dan Katsande, Jay Basi, and Isaac Jowett were subbed on to make an impact on the game. However, we knew another goal was needed to settle the game. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long.
The third goal came from a poor clearance somehow leading to Harry being completely unmarked to calmly finish 1 on 1. 3-0. At this point it felt like the game was over. We were so wrong.
The last 5/10 minutes was terrible - to put it bluntly. They scored two pretty scrappy goals quickly one after another. And we knew that, for the last stages of the game, we would have to really manage the game, taking few risks.
Teeside, quite literally, took the fight to us, as one of their players clearly idolised Sheamus from WWE and Brogue kicked Jasper in his chest. Mr Isaac Jowett wasn't impressed by this and, as an angry Geordie himself, he was never going to refuse the opportunity for some pushing and shoving to run the clock down.
Following the delay, we managed to see the game out and deny Teesside the chance to win the title at Maiden Castle. Now all we can do is hope they lose their next two games and give us a shot at promotion.
We were very happy to win the game and keep pressure on Teesside; as the astute Freddie Merrett stated, “I will take 85 minutes of imperiousness”.
Full-Time: Durham (3s) 3 - 2 Teeside
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Player of the Match: Harry Smith; you can't ask for much more than two goals from your front-man. Honourable mention to Fergus Brant for a goal on debut!
Line-Up: Jasper Gourley; Harry Loosemoore; Jamie Wood; Rory O'Hare; Paddy Harvey; James Webb-Wood; Sam Checketts; Oli Tweddle; Harry Smith (Goal x2) Sacha Lee; Fergus Brant (Goal)
Substitutes: Jamie Green; George Vardon; Jay Basi; Isaac Jowett; Dan Katsande
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