Hebburn Town boss takes balanced approach to Gateshead friendly defeat

Hebburn Town have been urged to learn lessons from their heavy friendly defeat against National League neighbours Gateshead.

Daniel Moore’s side made a lively start to Tuesday night’s meeting with the FA Trophy winners but found themselves a goal down at half-time after Heed duo Aidan Rutledge and Tom Allan scored either side of an equaliser from Hornets new boy Michael Turner.  The introduction of Will McGowan at the interval inspired the visitors as the former South Shields midfielder netted a hat-trick and set up Owen Oseni to bag his first Gateshead goal.  A Luke Hannant penalty put the seal on a dominant second-half display from Rob Elliot’s men as their own preparations for the new campaign got underway in fine style.

Hornets boss Moore took a balanced approach as he assessed a challenging 90 minutes for his squad and stressed the pressure they were forced to play under will stand them in good stead when they get their first ever Northern Premier League Premier Division season underway next month.

He told The Gazette: “I think in previous years we have sat deep and made ourselves hard to break down - but I said tonight that I wanted us to go and have a go and play under that pressure on the ball.  We left gaps, that was always going to happen and you get punished against a team like that but we’ve got minutes into the lads and they’ve played under that extreme pressed we know Gateshead use.

“We have got to be brave under pressure because there are teams in this division that will put us under that pressure.  We have to learn to deal with that.  We could have defended better individually but we have a week of training now and we left that on purpose.  There’s nothing to worry about, pre-season is about getting fit and working on things and that is what we will continue to do between now and the start of the season.”

The Hornets will resume their pre-season fixtures when they host National League North club Darlington next Tuesday night before heading to Garforth Town for their first away friendly of the summer on Saturday week.