Dunston face a trip down to Yorkshire tonight for their first away game of the season in The Pitching-In Northern Premier North West Division.

Looking to bounce back from last weekend’s 0-1 defeat to Colne at The UTS Stadium, a game made conspicuous by a raft of questionable decisions by the match officials. Dunston will be facing and much changed side from the one they faced last season.

The sides met three terms last season, with Dunston coming out on top at The UTS Stadium in August, thanks to a fine move and finish from Luke Page. Ossett returned to Tyneside in October and were again defeated, this time Chris Swailes’ side ran out 3-2 winners in the FA Trophy preliminary round, thanks to a Mark Fitzpartick brace and a goal from Scott Heslop; whilst at Ingfield Dunston were defeated 2-1 with Ossett Utd scoring twice in the space of a matter of minutes, just before the stroke of half time.

Form wise “The Sheepicorns” are yet to record a win so far this season; defeat on penalties away to Northern League side Consett in The FA Cup extra-preliminary round, a 0-2 loss away to Mossley in their opening League game and a 0-2 loss at home to Ramsbottom in the 1st qualifying round of the FA Trophy last weekend, manager Wayne Benn has pinpointed tonight’s fixture to get the clubs season rolling. With a growing list of injuries George Green may be unavailable for the hosts due to a hamstring injury whilst Jack Cowgill and Eddie Cass are long term absentees,  skipper Jack Stockdill serves the second of his two match suspension.

In a recent interview given to the clubs official website Ossett Utd manager Benn commented “You have a squad for a reason, it’s about people stepping up, it’s about people grabbing opportunities and I think we’ve got boys in there who’ve not grabbed opportunities when the chance has come round”. Adding “Hopefully we get a better performance, we get a reaction and we can get our season back up and running on Tuesday. It’s another tough game, with injury problems and conundrums to solve in terms of the starting XI but we’ll do that and hopefully put on a positive performance and try our best to get three points and get our season started”.

Ticket details for tonight’s game can be found on:

https://ossettunitedfc.ktckts.com/brand/match-tickets

Match photography courtesy of Ken Fitzpatrick