The Albany Northern League

The 28-year-old Kasonali, a one-club player coming through the junior ranks, hit the 454 mark in the FA Vase win over Pickering Town on Monday night, taking them into the third round for the first time and a trip tomorrow to table-topping Midland Alliance club Barwell who lost their first league game last Saturday.

Marske defeated Pickering 2-1, the game finally staged at the eighth attempt, both goals coming from John Woods who put his side into an early second-half lead and hti the winner from the penalty spot.

Kasonali, from Redcar, would have been a little closer to the record but missed games at the start of the season after getting married and going away for a honeymoon.

Defender Hodgson also captained the side for 10 years and was vice-chairman when he was still playing and became chairman in 1991.

Marske have a good record of long-serving players with Michael Kinnair making over 400 and club captain Craig Gibbin is over the 400 mark and is the club's second highest scorer with 149.

But now playing in defence he may find Chris Morgan's all-time high of 169 out of reach.

Marske are concerned that the Barwell tie may be dogged by the weather. Charlie Bell, Marske manager, said: "I've been talking to somebody in the Midlands, who has told me that there's been a lot of heavy rain, and the match could be in doubt. The last thing we want is for the match to be postponed and rearranged for midweek.

"Barwell is well over three hours away, so that means all the lads would have to arrange an afternoon off work.

" And I don't think they will be too happy if we travel all the way down there for a midweek game, and discover that it is postponed again."

Dunston Federation are in the same boat. They set off today for an overnight stay in prepartion for their game at Stourport Swifts, just a stone's throw from Kidderminster in Worcestershire.

The Vase draw was split north and south for the third round, but Dunston - who travelled to St Blazey in Cornwall two years ago - might disagree with that practice, as they are facing a 500 mile round trip this weekend.

However. some clubs prefer to play opposition from outside the north east. Consett manager Colin Carr, whose side face Heanor from Derbyshire, said; "You're very much an unknown quantity when you play somebody from outside your own league. When you play a team from your own league, both teams know a lot about each other, whereas there's an element of surprise against other teams."

Durham City went top of the First Division on Tuesday night when they crushed Seaham Red Star 5-0 at New Ferens Park.

All the goals came in the first half as Durham threatened to run riot. Stuart Irvine scored from a free-kick, and then direct from a corner to put Durham 2-0 up.

Paul Symons got the third direct from a Michael Taylor pass, then Stuart Brightwell raced through to score from a Symons pass.

Steve Hutchinson finished off the scoring from 20 yards.

Durham boss Brian Honour said; "That was the best I've seen us play since I took charge."

Durham are now top by two points from Billingham Synthonia, and another four ahead of Bedlington.

However, Bedlington have five games n hand on Durham, and three on Synners, but their defeat by Synners last week has given the others plenty of encouragement. The other game scheduled for this week, the league cup tie between Brandon and Shotton, was postponed

Seaham manager Steve Smith is resigned to losing midfielder Lee Adamson for at least a month. Adamson was shown the red card for swearing at the referee in last Saturday's win at Hebburn, a result which lifted Seaham out of the bottom five.

Seaham finished the game with nine men after former Sunderland striker David Rush was dismissed for a foul, then Adamson quickly followed him. They scored their second goal to seal the points when they were short of two men. Smith said: "We might be losing him for a while, because we've heard there was a referee's assessor at the game also."

Marske's victory over Pickering means that the scheduled league game at Billingham Synthonia has had to be postponed. Synners, second in the table, now travel to Peterlee.

The league has rescheduled several fixtures in a midweek slot before Christmas. Penrith and Northallerton, well behind with their fixtures in the Second Division, hope to play each other on December 19. Durham City are due at Whitley Bay in the Albany Northern League Cup, while West Auckland play Seaham and Newcastle Blue Star take on Marske United.

The following night, Brandon go to Bedlington while Billingham Town and Tow Law stage a repeat of tomorrow's FA Vase tie. Crook play Chester-le-Street while Peterlee face Dunston.

Hebburn and Whitley Bay play tonight , a game brought forward from tomorrow.

Consett have received seven days notice of approach from UniBond League club Workington for midfielder Kieron McGinlay, but their interest looks doomed to failure.

"We received their letter last week," said Carr, "But so far, nobody has heard anything from them.

"Kieron has told me that he doesn't want to go there, and besides that, he doesn't drive - so it doesn't look like a viable proposition."

Easington manager Wilf Constantine was delighted with new signing Jonathan Mould after the 2-0 home win over Guisborough last Saturday.

Mould scored both goals in the last 11 minutes, giving Easington three much needed points, and move them further away from the bottom two in the First Division.

"Jonathan took his goals well, considering that he had only been on the field for a few minutes.

"I think now we are over our cup hangover. We haven't played well since we reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup, but our recent results suggest that we're starting to find our old form again.

"It proves that getting as far as we did in the Cup was no fluke."

The revised quarter final draw of the Albany Durham Challenge Cup is: Tow Law v South Shields, Darlington v West Auckland, Nissan v Bishop Auckland, Brandon v Billingham Town. Ties are due to be played on or before January 6.

The Darlington-West Auckland game has been arranged for January 3.

Division One

P W D L F A Pts

Durham City 19 11 5 3 49 19 38

Billingham Syn 17 11 3 3 48 30 36

Bedlington 14 10 2 2 44 10 32

Peterlee 17 9 4 4 28 23 31

Guisborough 18 8 4 6 31 27 28

Dunston 13 8 3 2 28 16 27

Brandon 16 7 3 6 29 28 24

Marske 14 6 5 3 24 13 23

Whitley Bay 14 6 3 5 26 18 21

Billingham Town 11 7 0 4 26 18 21

Consett 16 6 3 7 24 24 21

West Auckland 13 5 3 5 18 20 18

Newcastle Blue S'r 14 5 3 6 23 28 18

Seaham 14 6 0 8 23 36 18

Tow Law 12 5 1 6 25 18 16

Jarrow Roofing 17 4 4 9 23 36 16

Morpeth 16 4 4 8 20 34 16

Chester-le-Street 12 4 1 7 19 18 13

Easington 11 4 0 7 19 26 12

Hebburn 16 2 1 13 15 44 7

Crook Town 16 0 2 14 9 70 2