Thirsk Falcons

Falcons played last Sunday at Catterick AWS on a heavy rain soaked AWS pitch. Leading scorer Ryan McKendry broke the deadlock midway through the first half after early Falcons domination and the second half saw Falcons go on to seal the victory with a cool finish by Matty Boyne. AWS tried desperately to get something from the game but were only to be denied by a string of eye-catching saves from Ben England in goal.

The B teams didn't disappoint the crowd either with a thoroughly entertaining contest. AWS got off to the better start with a quick double strike. But Falcons did well to level the score with a fine brace from the industrious Philip Cummins. With the scores level, Falcons looked the more likely to score again. Falcons saw numerous efforts either miss the target or fail to beat the AWS stopper.

Falcons play at Boroughbridge tomorrow followed by a home tie against Northallerton Town on Sunday.

Division Five leaders Thirsk Under-13s emerged 7-3 victors knocking Ferryhill Town out of Division Three out of the Challenge Cup with a 7-3 win.

Falcons quickly set about the visitors and raced into a 2-0 lead, Dion Costick and Tom James scoring similar lobbed goals. However, Ferryhill fought back well, going in level at the break Robbin Fountain relieved Falcon's tension as he put Thirsk 3-2 ahead only to see Ferryhill equalise once again. Thirsk's excellent fitness brought four goals in the last 20 minutes with Fountain bagging a hat-trick with two well taken goals. Man of the match, Duncan Padget, followed in a spilt shot for number six before Fountain's fourth strike sent Thirk safely through.

Thirks Under-14s played some of their best football, defeating Tees Valley 8-0. David James opened the scoring, his shot too hot to handle. Johnny Lake soon doubled the lead, coolly lobbing the keeper before Martin Hope crashed in a bullet header for number three and Lake completed his brace before half time.

David James raced through for his second shortly into the second half. Goal six came in courtesy of a 25 yard Anthony Elders free kick. James cruised in for his hat trick, leaving Matthew Savage to claim his first Falcons goal, kneeing in the eighth.

Catterick AWS

AWS Yellow played against Richmond on a cold and wintery day and immediately went onto the attack however, some good defensive play from Richmond managed to keep the scores level until the fifth minute when George Brisco managed to get his foot onto a powerful shot from Liam Ryan and guide it into the net to make it 1-0.

This gave AWS the incentive to surge forward which paid off when Alister Stuart scored to make it 2-0 at half-time.

The second half saw the introduction of Nicky Clark to help out the defensive line of Dominic Barker and Tyler Lowe. Richmond immediately put this trio under pressure and were rewarded with a goal by T. Larder even after a brave effort to stop it by goalkeeper Sudeep Ali.

This reawakened AWS who immediately replied with a well taken goal by Liam Ryan. After this it was all AWS and victory was sealed towards the final whistle when top scorer Sam Burgess scored a magnificent solo goal to make the final score 4-1. Man of the Match was awarded to captain, George Brisco, for his excellent passing play and encouragement he gave to the team.

Also against Richmond, AWS Reds were immediately put under pressure when conceding three corners in succession, however the excellent defending skills of Fraser Lane and captain, Cameron Esler, managed to keep the score at 0-0.

Some excellent goalkicking from Liam Ryan to the midfield of Denver Salisbury and Jake Davies enabled them to release Michael Brown who scored the opening goal. He responded to this by unselfishly passing to Jake Davies who kept his cool to score the second for AWS. Richmond again applied pressure to the AWS defence whose nerve held to keep the score at 2-0 at half time.

The second half kicked off with AWS going straight into the attack which resulted in Michael Brown scoring his second of the game. There then followed some excellent team passing play which resulted in Stephen Mathers scoring his first goal for the team to make the final score 4-0 and a well deserved first victory for the Red team. Man of the match was awarded to Michael Brown for his skilful running with the ball and display of unselfishness in front of goal.