‘A Game to forget’ says Rothbury manager

The Red Row striker’s derby double took his tally to five in two games – and just four days - since making the switch from neighbours Stobswood.

Many in the Rothbury side know Bell and a number of other players in the ‘Raa team well, but boss Dan Herron refused to use that fact as any excuse for the result.

“I wouldn’t really call it a derby to be fair, we do know some of them obviously from the North Northumberland and Sunday leagues too, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the loss,” he said.

“Kev Bell was dangerous for them all day. They’re a physical hard-working team and probably deserved the win in the end, given how flat we were in the second half,” he continued.

“It would have been nice to have gone in 1-0 up and see where we went because I thought we managed it well in the first half - but it’s one we need to forget about and move on.”

Coquetdale hit-man Gareth McCann is on a decent scoring run himself. The big number 9 chalked up his fourth of the season as he shot the Reds in front in the 22ndminute. Latching onto a bouncing ball, the striker fired into the roof of the net on the volley from the edge of the box with the Reds well on top.

But the hard work was undone as a nightmare ten minute spell before the interval saw Red Row hit the back of the net three times in quick succession through Luke Baston, Joe Henderson and Daniel Parker.

Any hopes of a fight-back were sunk when Bell netted his first just after the hour to effectively kill the game off. He’d hit a hat-trick in his debut during an 8-1 drubbing of Gosforth Bohs in mid-week and continued his golden run by beating keeper Paul Appleby.

Greg Woodburn gave Rothbury a glimmer of hope when he pulled one back in the 83rdminute with a volleyed chip over the keeper into the top corner.

But they were hit on the break twice while pushing forward late in the game as Bell added his second in the 88th minute and Louis Shanks netted a killer sixth in stoppage time.