Three stunning first half goals, and a Ryan Whitley penalty save paved the way for a fabulous 3-0 win against Spennymoor Town, as Boro totally dominated the opening 45 minutes, playing some fabulous attacking football that had the big home crowd roaring with delight at one of the best Boro performances for many years, as the visitors struggled to cope with the pace and trickery of attacking duo Rio Allan and Mo Fadera.
Every Boro player contributed to a near perfect team performance, with sound goalkeeping, tenacious tackling, intricate passing moves, sublime flashes of skill and outstanding pace from the front runners, that left a good Spennymoor side chasing shadows for long periods. Alex Brown flashed a shot wide in the opening minute, skipper Will Thornton headed over from an Alex Purver-Hannan corner, Frankie Whelan hacked clear when Fadera burst into the area, Whelan blocked a Brown shot, and Fadera blazed wide then fired into the arms of keeper Zac Hadi.
For the visitors, skipper Rob Ramshaw fired straight at Whitley, before Boro went ahead when the superb Luke Hall on the left, sent a fantastic cross-field pass to Allan on the right wing, and he raced into the area and clinically drillled his shot into the bottom left corner. Moors were awarded a penalty two minutes later when Thornton handled as he fell in the area, but ex Boro striker Richie Bennett’s spot kick was superbly saved by Whitley as he dived to his right. Jack Jenkins then raced into the area, but was halted by a Jake Hull tackle, but Boro were soon back on top, an Allan shot was headed clear by Dan Jones, and the excellent Brown fired over.
The lead was doubled with a brilliant finish from Fadera, who latched onto a ball forward, jinked past two defenders, and smashed his shot into the top left corner. Boro were rampant, Purver-Hannan (on his 150th Boro appearance) passed to Fadera, who flashed his shot wide, then Allan added the third goal, when Alex Wiles passed forward, and he cut in from the right, beating two defenders for pace before firing into the bottom left corner. Luca Colville fed Jack Waldron whose shot was deflected wide by Ben Pollock, and on the stroke of half-time Allan again fired home, but an offside flag denied him his hat trick.
The second half was much less one-sided, but Boro remained in control although Spennymoor did offer more attacking threat. Wiles tackled Ramshaw when he got into the box, Whitley held a shot from Ramsden then gathered a couple of dangerous crosses including a cut-back from the bye-line from Cam Salkeld, and Glen Taylor fired narrowly wide. Further Boro chances saw Hall shoot over, a cross from Brown bounced off the top of the bar, a terrific Lewis Maloney pass found Waldron, whose lay-off to Brown resulted in his fierce shot being blocked by Pollock. Hull glanced a header wide from a Maloney corner, then from another Maloney corner, Thornton’s header was cleared off the line by Sam Murray. Colville and Allan both fired wide, and a clever Colville flick fell to Dom Tear, who played a slick one-two with Allan, before shooting narrowly wide, and late on, Tear headed to Hall, whose low shot was pushed round the post by keeper Hadi.
