Despite the awful conditions on Tuesday night, Thornaby managed to pull off a fairly comfortable 4-0 away win against The Star led by a brace by Thornaby winger Luke Hogan.

The game opened up with a variety of half chances for either side in the opening 10 minutes. A long free kick put in the box fell to the feet of Thornaby’s number 9, Craig Hutchinson, in the first minute but a failure to meet the ball with any real conviction saw the ball roll into Red Star keeper, Andrew Jennison’s arms.

As the game developed, Seaham Red Star winger, Joe Kerridge, came close with a few free kicks around the box with one most notably just sliding wide of the far post.

Red Star coach, Michael Johnson claimed there was a “lack of quality in the final third” from his side, which showed as the home side were limited to ambitious long range efforts, with none hitting the target.

In the 21^st minute, Red Star were punished as Thornaby whipped a great cross towards the back post, where the ball was unable to be cleared and instead fell to the feet of forward Luke Hogan to slot home his first of the game with the help of a deflection on the way.

Nine minutes later, home claims of an offside were ignored by the linesman as Hogan found himself in on goal and clinically slotted the ball away to make the score 0-2.

After the half-time interval, Thornaby continued to create their share of chances as Elliott Beddow waltzed forward from inside his own half before clipping the ball through to Hogan once again, who this time was unable to convert for his hat-trick.

During the second half, the wind was certainly growing stronger with the ball getting caught in the air. However, Red Star coach Michael Johnson claimed the conditions “didn’t play a massive part” of the game and that both sides had to deal with the conditions.

In the 63^rd minute, Thornaby’s efficient counter-attacking paid off once again as midfielder, Joseph Scaife-Whealtey, broke away down the left hand side before sliding the ball across to striker Hutchinson who took one touch to put the ball onto his left foot before slamming the ball down the middle and in off the crossbar.

With The Star finding themselves 0-3 down, more battles and tackles started to fly in from both sides. Thornaby received two yellow cards in the space of a minute, both for late tackles, one for goalscorer Hutchinson and one for substitute Keiran Edwards.

Remarkably it took until the 75^th minute for Red Star to have a shot on target as substitute Thomas Lawson showed good pace and skill to get one-on-one with the keeper, but was cancelled out by a great save by Thornaby goalkeeper, Joshua Mazfari.

Only a couple of minutes later, in the 77^th minute, another breakaway down the wing for Thornaby saw a great cross be put in towards the back post once again, where Red Star full back, Joshua Baggs, was unable to clear his lines with a poor defensive header which landed at the feet of Thornaby’s number 10, Elliott Beddow to tap home.

However, despite the lack of chances, the home side did have another opportunity to get on the scoresheet in the 83^rd minute when striker Louis Anderson was brought down in the box. Red Star captain, Thomas Bott, who has been lining up efforts all night, stepped up to take the spot kick. Bott unfortunately blazed his effort over the bar to keep Thornaby’s clean sheet intact.

Not long after, the referee blew the final whistle on a miserable Tuesday evening for Seaham Red Star who will no doubt, despite the scoreline, take a few positives from the performance before moving onto their next fixture on Saturday against Ashington at the Independent Utility Service Arena.

Red Star Team : Jennison, Baggs, Hailes, Heywood (Robinson J), Nelson, Patterson, Kerridge (Lawson), Bott, Anderson, Robinson M (Hodgson), Sayer.

by Ben Pescod