NOTICEBOARD

U23s manager Gary Henry was disheartened after his side were knocked out the Durham Minor Cup.

Hebburn’s second-string travelled to Deerness Valley last weekend in the quarter-final, and started brightly with goals from Jack Robertson and Robbie Gateshill.

“We went to Deerness in good spirits,” Henry said. “We took the lead after three minutes when Jack hit a 20-yard effort which took a deflection past the keeper.

“However we were forced into an early change when John Murray injured a quad muscle, so we replaced him with Robbie who has been out for the last two months.

“Robbie got the second goal after some great work from Jack on 21 minutes, and he got his second of game on 30 minutes to give us a 3-0 lead.

Bryan [Wood] saved a penalty for us but Deerness got one back on 44 after sloppy defending.”

Despite Hebburn having a three-goal advantage, Deerness’ goal before halftime gave a second wind to the hosts ahead of the second period.

Henry was frustrated with that second half display, as Deerness managed to tie proceedings before going through on penalties.

“The second half was almost all Deerness as we seemed to sit back,” he admitted.

“They pulled another goal back which again was an error from ourselves, and the third could’ve been stopped with a free header to make it 3-3.

“We missed a few chances after that and the game went to penalties - we missed all three and they scored there’s."