Ten-man AFC Newbiggin forced to settle for Durham United draw

Ten-man AFC Newbiggin had to settle for a sharing of the spoils against Durham United on Saturday afternoon, playing out a 2-2 draw away from home.

The visitors fired themselves into an early lead through the in-form Matty Nelson, who struck directly from a free-kick after just seven minutes. From there, however, Durham would fight back admirably, netting twice before half-time to take a 2-1 lead into the interval.

But Newbiggin were not to be quelled, and man of the match Nelson once again popped up with his sixth goal of the season moments into the second half to restore parity. Any hopes of the Northumberland outfit kicking on to claim all three points were heavily dented, though, by the dismissal of substitute Thomas Johnson, who was shown a red card shortly after entering the action just before the hour-mark.

And speaking after the final whistle, manager Simon Wilson bemoaned the impact that the sending off had on Newbiggin’s prospects. He said: “It was just stupidity. Literally, we’re in the total ascendancy, on top, it’s only going one way, and for no reason he [Johnson] just raised his hands and pushed the lad in the back, or whatever it is, and gave the ref the option to give him a red card.

“I can't get my head around it. He'd been on the pitch two minutes. It's absolutely insane. For me, there's absolutely no way we don't win that game with 11 men on the pitch. I mean, we should have won it with 10. There was only one side in the second half that could have won the game, with the chances, but that's just ridiculous to do that.”

On Nelson’s contribution, he added: “We need more players than him to step up. He's looked like the one who's going to get the goals every other game now, but other players really need to step up and start putting their name on the scoresheet, start being a bit more clinical and aggressive in the final third. It's about the whole team coming together, not just one player, and that's something we need to understand.”