Hebburn Town left gutted by agonising late defeat to Worksop Town

Assistant manager Mark Hudson described Hebburn Town’s agonising late defeat at the hands of Worksop Town as ‘a tough one to take’.

Both sides were firmly in the race for a Northern Premier League Premier Division play-off spot ahead of Saturday’s clash on South Tyneside - but it was the visitors that looked well on their way to boosting their top five hopes as they found themselves two goals ahead by the half-hour mark. Aleksandrs Starcenko opened the scoring just on the quarter-hour before Joe Leesley got in on the act with a fine free-kick to put the Tigers in control.

Hebburn, to their credit, bounced back in some style as Robbie Spence halved the deficit just before the hour-mark and a point looked to have been secured when player-manager Daniel Moore came off the bench to grab an equaliser with eight minutes remaining. However, Starcenko doubled his tally and snatched all three points for his side when he netted the winning goal in injury-time to leave Hudson to reflect on a difficult day for his side.

He said: “It’s a tough one to take and I don’t really know where to start. There was only on team that was going to win the game to be honest. We still felt there was something in it for us at half-time, we still felt in the game and fair play to the boys because the determination shown in the second-half against a team that’s been in the play-offs all season, we ran them ragged. We got the goal and kept pushing and pushing, lads came on, did really well and the gaffer came on and got the goal with ten minutes to play. Do you go for it? Do you settle for a point? Their legs has gone and we had all of the energy so it’s so disappointing to lose the game from a set-piece and a corner. It’s throughly disappointing but we have to take the positives from it.”

The Hornets now turn their attention towards the rearranged visit to Whitby Town on Tuesday night.

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