Ebac Northern League
Seaham Red Star......... 0
West Auckland Town... 3
GOALS from David Dowson, Adam Mitchell and Jamie Cobain saw West Auckland Town claim a convincing victory at Seaham Red Star.
Red Star boss Mark Collingwood featured five U18 players and Dowson took full advantage as West took the lead just six minutes in.
Second half goals in the space of two minutes from Mitchell and Cobain guaranteed West a third win in five matches.
The result sees West rise up to seventh in the division one table with 21 points while Red Star drop to the bottom with just one win all season.
Debutant Daniel Greenfield joined Tom Flynn, Lewis Dodds, Jamie Harwood, Alex Francis and Dowson in the starting line up.
West began brightly and opened the scoring after a short corner by Mitchell was played to the feet of Greenfield, who arrived on a one-month loan from National League side Gateshead. His low deep cross was flicked in via Dowson for his ninth goal of the season.
Chris Bannon avoided disaster ten minutes later, when an attempted clearance inside his own box was intercepted by Amar Purewal, but his off balance shot lacked pace.
Francis led the next attack for West midway through the first half. Following an electrifying run on the right, he found Greenfield unmarked in the centre, but the shot went narrowly over the crossbar.
Seaham’s best chance before the interval fell to Dan Wilson and a significant touch by Flynn stopped the ex-Blyth and North Shields forward from taking it round him and placing into an empty net.
West held sway after the break but it took until the 75th minute to turn pressure into goals.
Mitchell gathered the ball on the edge of the area and curled a magnificent right-footed strike into the roof of the net.
More misery followed for Red Star just two minutes later, as a defensive mix up allowed Cobain with the simplest of finishes to round off a comfortable afternoon for Gary Forrest’s side.
West are back on the road once again in midweek as they take on Jarrow in the Durham Challenge Cup First Round.
West Auckland: Flynn, Hegarty, Dodds (c), Cobain, Harwood, Greenfield (Bell, 65), Thompson, Francis, Dowson (Guy, 78), Purewal (Burnicle, 83), Mitchell
Subs not used - Colquhoun, Greenwood
Referee: Alex Clarke
Attendance: 117.
