Lead Coach Derek Forrest praised Team Northumbria for their character, despite another defeat.
TN lost 3-1 away to Sunderland RCA, making their record in the Northern League one win to four losses.
“I’m starting to sound like a broken record,” said Forrest.
“In the first 35 we’ve taken the game by the scruff of the neck and we’ve made some fantastic openings.
“Gerrard on the left-hand side was cutting in, squaring balls across the box, we’ve had one shot kicked off the line, another we possibly should have scored. I could see ourselves in that nice little period being 3-0 up.
“We conceded 40 minutes in from a penalty, that everyone’s still scratching their heads at why it was given.
“They’ve scored that, it’s obviously infuriated a few people and we’ve tried to calm down. They’ve then played the ball forward, we haven’t cleared our lines and all of a sudden, we’re in the dressing room 2-0 down again.
“It’s almost unbelievable but it’s happened on three occasions, we’re going to have to put in the work and be more resolute come the end of the first half.”
The second half saw Sunderland RCA shut up shop after scoring a third, in an attempt to control the momentum and see their lead to the finish.
“They couldn’t deal with our energy levels, so they’ve killed the game,” continued Forrest.
“Even though our energy levels were high, we haven’t particularly got into our flow again.
“Then with about 10 minutes to go, we’ve actually found something. Robbie Spence has worked tirelessly all night and has gotten himself a goal.
“My positive from this would be how promising that first half could have been if we got our noses ahead.
“That was by far our biggest challenge to date, I think apart from losing 3-1 we’ve actually passed the test of character with that performance.”
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