Visitors hit back to deny plucky Alnmouth

Heavy sleet showers immediately before and during Alnmouth’s first league match since November made for a difficult playing surface, but the sides entertained nevertheless with the honours shared , despite the home side laying siege to the visitors goal in the second half.

Jonny Quinn opened the scoring ten minutes in with a stunning precision strike from an acute angle wide right. Within minutes, Alnmouth were caught out when Dan Candlish pulled the ball back for Michael McGill to slide a left foot shot past ‘keeper, Mick Ashurst.

Just after the interval, the Seasiders were ahead again with Quinn once more involved; this time cutting inside before his resultant shot was parried where Kevin Bell was on hand to blast into the top corner.

Then back came Gateshead to level on 54 minutes when a Michael Hall free kick was converted at the back post by Sam Hodgson.

As the half wore on, United attacked with wave after wave and carved out enough opportunities in the mud to have sealed the victory comfortably but a series of unlikely failures, including an offside ‘goal’ and some heroic goalkeeping from Seb Jenson kept the sides level.

MoM, Alnmouth: Jorden Frost, Gateshead: Seb Jenson.