Erith & Belvedere   2          Moore 55, McGillicuddy 88

Shildon                     7          Bell 5, 60, Curran 12, Brown 44, Burridge 48, Hopper 70,

Douglas 80     

FA Amateur Cup 2nd round, 23 January 1960

 

Continuing the series counting down the 100 most memorable games in our history.  Today, the last and heaviest of a series of Amateur Cup defeats to Northern League sides.

 

SHILDON HALF-BACKS NEVER GAVE DERES A CHANCE

 

Erith and Belvedere, in their many games against Northern League clubs in the FA Amateur Cup, have never been hammered as they were at Park View on Saturday when Shildon had almost complete control from start to finish.  The visitors opened with two quick goals and Deres took a long time to recover.

 

The visitors were better than the home team in every department except goal, where Reith had a busy afternoon and brought off many excellent saves.  Deres’ defence was no match for the fast-moving Shildon forwards, especially wing man Hooper and Douglas, and centre-forward Burridge, although Mason effectively prevented the leader from making headway down the middle.

 

Shildon’s half-backs kept a tight rein on the home forwards, their quick, determined tackling checking home movements as soon as they began.  It was that tackling which was the deciding factor in the match: the visitors carried their tackles through, taking the ball with them, whereas the home men seemed to brake halfway through.

 

A centre from Douglas enabled Bell to open the scoring in the fifth minute and seven minutes later Reith ran out and checked Curran, but luck was with the visitor as the ball ran up his body and was carried past the spread-eagled Reith.  Just before the interval A Brown drove first-time through a crowd of players into the net.

 

Shildon opened equally strongly after the interval, and Burridge’s goal in the first few minutes was a gem – the reward of quick thinking.  He dashed across the goal area to meet a corner-kick and headed into the net wide of Reith.

 

Deres now gave a glimpse of what might have been, Lawson and McGillicuddy on the wings and Moore in the centre being concerned in several bright moves.  A brilliant run by McGillicuddy ended with a centre which Moore took first time and drove hard into the net.  A similar move which started on the halfway line ended with the referee giving Lawson offside.

 

Other goals by Bell, Hopper and Douglas killed any hopes Deres might have had of saving the game, but two minutes from the end McGillicuddy headed in from a free-kick.

 

Deres: Alec Reith; John Shed, Dennis Crawford; Joe Graimes, Derek Mann, Bill Schofield; Tom Lawson, Colin Neylen, Brian Moore, Derek Shreeve, Con McGillicuddy.

Shildon: M Peacock; E Dwight, J Nelthorpe; R Ayre, A Brown, A Brown; K Hopper, J Curran, A Burridge, G Bell, A Douglas.

 

 

Shildon had had another big cup tie earlier in the season when they took Oldham Athletic to an FA Cup first round replay, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 3-0 at Boundary Park.  In the next round of the Amateur Cup Shildon went out 3-1 at home to Enfield.  Enfield won 1-0 at Southall in the quarter-final but lost 2-0 to Hendon in the semi at Brentford.  Hendon beat Kingstonian 2-1 in the final at Wembley.

 

Meanwhile Deres went on to reach the semi-final of the Kent Amateur Cup before losing 3-0 to Bromley, and finished 11th in the 16-team Corinthian League.

 

Nobody could have known it, but it was the end of an era for the Deres in the Amateur Cup.  We never reached the second round proper of the competition again, and only played beyond the qualifying rounds three more times before the Amateur Cup was abolished in 1974: losing to Pegasus in 1960-61, Wycombe Wanderers in 1961-62, and Hitchin Town in 1971-72.

 

Plus it was the last of a series of big cup ties against Northern League clubs – the only one we’ve played since is North Shields, in the FA Vase quarter-final in 2015.