Jarrow Roofing boss left '˜disappointed' after late goal despite fightback

The Roofers found themselves two goals down at the break, with Liam Thear and Warren Byrne doing the damage.

However, the visitors roared back in the second-half as Dan Kirkup and Paul Gardiner levelled the scores before the hour mark.

But, when Darryll Donnelly got sent off shortly after, Dunston made their numerical advantage count to seal the win, with Byrne netting his second of the day.

This result leaves the South Tynesiders languishing in 19th position in the Ebac Northern League Division 1, and McLoughlin admits he was slightly disappointed that his side could not manage to find the win after doing so well to pull themselves level.

“I think we did very well to get it back to 2-2 early on in the second-half because I thought we struggled slightly in the first-half.

“When the second goal came for us, I thought there was only one team that was going to go on and win the game, and that was us.

“We made silly mistakes and were undone by a clinical side. We had our chances, but we didn’t take them.

“If you don’t take your chances, then you will never win football matches – and we have a lot of work to do to try and sort this out.”

The Roofing boss called for a better performance from his side after they were taken apart by South Shields last week, and Chris Winn almost started that revival on 11 minutes after he got his head to Gardiner’s cross, only to be denied by a point-blank save from Andrew Clark.

However, Roofing’s bright start would be derailed in controversially. The visitors were punished for a handball in the area, but Lewis Brass did well to parry the resulting spot-kick – only for Thear to smash home the rebound despite Roofing appeals.

“I don’t think it was a penalty in the first place,” McLoughlin added. “It was a harsh decision. There wasn’t much between the two sides until then, and I felt that was a crucial point in the match.”

In the 38th minute, Byrne made Roofing pay for their wastefulness by doubling the advantage as he fired into the top corner on the turn.

On the stroke of half-time, he produced another stunning save to deny the luckless Winn – producing a flying stop to parry the striker’s curling shot after he had been played through on goal by Knight.

It took just nine minutes after the restart for Roofing to draw themselves level, as Dunston simply fell apart at the back.

Kirkup started the revival when the centre-back saw his header from Calvin Smith’s corner saved by Clark.

However, the goalkeeper spilled the ball on the line, and Kirkup reacted first to bundle the ball home. Minutes later, Winn pounced on the ball and drove at the defence, slipping in Gardiner, who fired home. Game on!

When Donnelly picked up his second booking on 59 minutes, all of Roofing’s momentum seemed to slip away.

It took Dunston just four minutes to capitalise on their numerical advantage as Byrne netted again – heading home Thear’s cross from the right.