Jarrow and Boldon CA bosses reflect on impressive wins

Kennie Malia believes Jarrow can take ‘real momentum’ into their Northern League Division Two play-off campaign after they came from a goal down to see off Billingham Town on Saturday.

Malia’s side found themselves a goal down inside the opening quarter of an hour after Kieran Stares’ penalty put the visitors ahead and that lead remained in place until half-time. After a calling for higher standards from his players during the interval, Jarrow roared back into the game after the restart and claimed all three points as Callum Johnston, Levi Collins and Evann Jardine all found the net during the second 45 minutes.

After rounding off their home fixtures for the regular season with a hard-earned win, Malia praised his players for their reaction to a lacklustre opening half and looked forward to what lies in wait over the coming weeks.

He told The Gazette: “It was a really poor first-half and if we are honest we didn't get going at all. We were a goal down at half-time and we knew we needed to get the standards back to normal once we went back out and, to be fair to them, the lads upped the game. The tempo was a lot better from us and we got back in it early on in the second-half and there only looked like one winner after that. It’s another win for us and we are gaining some real momentum going into the play-offs.”

A trip to Ryton and Crawcrook Albion will round off the regular season for Jarrow and they can still claim second place in the table if they claim all three points at the Oldhaulage Stadium and Yarm and Eaglescliffe are beaten at Chester-le-Street Town.

Crooks hails Boldon character after fine away win

Dan Crooks hailed the character shown by Boldon CA are they rounded off their away fixtures for the season with a fine win at Northern League Division Two play-off contenders Chester-le-Street United.

The hosts went into the game knowing a positive result would confirm their top five spot and ensured their hopes of securing a first ever promotion into the Northern League’s top tier remained alive. Results elsewhere ensured United will end the season in one of the four play-off spots - but they were condemned to a rare home defeat by a hardworking Boldon side.

After keeping their hosts are bay for large parts of the contest with a disciplined display, Boldon secured a fine three points and picked up one of the best away wins of the season when Liam Heywood his sixth goal in as many games deep in second-half injury-time.

Joint-manager Crooks revealed a change in shape helped his side to an impressive win and now urged the Boldon players to make ‘one more push’ to finish their season on a positive note.

He told The Gazette: “The lads showed good character to dig in against a good side and we worked hard throughout the game. A change of shape definitely helped and we were solid throughout and had to show some valiant defending in the second-half especially. We are very proud of the lads to get a winner at the end and we now want one more push to sign the season off on a high.”

Boldon will round off a season of change when they host Thornaby at the Villa next Saturday afternoon.

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