Birtley Town 2-3 Scarborough Athletic

FA Vase 2nd. Round Qualifying
The following announcement was made on the Northern League Official web site earlier in the week:
"Because of problems of standing water, now contaminated, on and around the pitch, Birtley's FA Vase tie on Saturday September 20 will now take place at Washington."
So it's off to Albany Park for my first visit of the season, a little earlier than I had expected!
This is to be Birtley's first venture into the FA Vase, against a side which was formed on June 25 of 2007 following the liquidation of Scarborough FC. Athletic are doing fairly well, being in top spot of the Northern Counties East League Div 1, with 17 points from 8 matches.

I was amazed to learn that Scarborough brought about 200 supporters along! They draped their flags behind one of the goals and made a fair bit of noise for their team.
Birtley worked hard as usual, while Scarborough were the better footballing side and probably deserved the result. However, both sides were guilty of some poor finishing and the scoreline could have been so different. Birtley were pegged down in their own half for long periods and most of their chances came on the break after some (at times) desperate defending. Scarborough were much more thoughtful with their attacks and displayed a lot of skill. Tony Thirkell was in the right place to score both Birtley's goals; Scarborough's first two came from David Thompson and Rob Ellis, while Scott Phillips got the the third after a goalmouth scramble.

Attendance 240