Northallerton Police 3 Unison GLR 2

NORTHALLERTON Police maintained their 100 per cent start to the season after withstanding a second half onslaught against town rivals Unison GLR at Newby Wiske last Sunday.

The Police looked to be cruising to a third straight victory after a dominant first half display had seen them go in at the break with a comfortable 3-0 advantage but the visitors, who also arrived with an unbeaten record to defend, almost turned the match on its head in a thrilling finale.

With players from both sides missing due to the Great North Run, it was the Police who started strongly, and they were rewarded after just eight minutes when Chris Walker knocked the ball out to Rob Fraser on the left and the winger, in only his third appearance for the club, strode forward before coolly stroking the ball past Unison keeper Ian Moore from ten yards.

Despite being on top at this stage, the Police very nearly conceded an equaliser ten minutes later when Mike Proud shot just wide from close range following a great left-wing cross from the dangerous Colin Anderson.

The two then combined again in the 25th minute where only a great save from Police keeper Danny Yates kept out a powerful header from Proud.

But Moore was the busier of the two keepers in the first half and he did well to keep out a tremendous 30-yard strike from Chris Pattison three minutes later, although he was powerless to prevent the hosts doubling their lead after half an hour.

This time, it was midfielder Ian Brown who tried his luck from distance, and his effort flew past the despairing dive of Moore into the top right hand corner of the net.

The Police appeared to have wrapped up the points three minutes later with a third goal.

Johnny Coombs played a sublime free-kick into the penalty area and Fraser was able to guide the ball beyond Moore from eight yards.

Fraser was then inches away from completing a first half hat-trick when his shot from the edge of the area seemed destined for the top corner but Moore’s outstretched fingertips only just denied him.

Having been under the cosh for much of the first half, Unison came out for the second period looking a completely different side. The goal they had been threatening arrived just before the hour mark when Anderson rose above the Police backline to head home a corner from Mark Raw and suddenly it was game on again.

The hosts’ cause was not helped by an injury to full back Richard Whincup and Unison capitalised on some slack Police defending to grab a second with 23 minutes remaining.

Anderson was brought down just outside the area by Coombs and Lee Shardha drilled the free-kick through a gap in the wall to make it 3-2.

Unison threw everything at the home defence in a desperate attempt to save their unbeaten run, and they were very nearly rewarded with an equaliser nine minutes from time as Raw saw his header beat Yates but come back off the crossbar.

That proved to be their last chance and the Police almost sealed the points in the final minute when substitute Chris Foster beat Moore from close range following good work from Ben Darville, but referee Glyn Davies disallowed the strike for offside and it finished 3-2.