This game was in the eleventh-tier Wearside League Premier Division and a short drive up from Teesside. After parking up, I struggled to find the entrance after walking the wrong way around the ground and then had to double back between some garages before eventually spotting the gates.
There was a plaque outside the ground commemorating former Sunderland player Bobby Gurney, whom I’d never heard of, despite him being Sunderland’s record goal scorer.
A bloke just inside the entrance took my three quid entrance money for his bucket. There were limited refreshments available, but I was able to get a coffee and their last packet of crisps. The fella who sold them to me bemoaned the lack of stock and reckoned that every time he returned from holiday it was always the same story.
There was a crowd or around forty or so, which I thought decent considering that Man Utd v Bayern Munich was on the telly.
It was fairly tight in the first half, but with lots of niggly fouls. The Silksworth left back was giving the ref plenty of stick, but in return received coaching from the elderly lino. As the defender got tight on his man the lino would urge “don’t foul, don’t foul” and then reward him with a “good lad” whenever the gobby left-back refrained from lunging in.
Midway through the second half, the ref decided that there had to be a limit to the criticism he was getting and sinbinned a visiting midfielder for suggesting to him that the Silksworth player writhing around on the floor “has had your pants down”.
By this time Silksworth had equalised Bishop Auckland’s first half opener and they took advantage of the momentum to add two more for a three-one victory.
Trail of the Lion King 
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