Gateshead 2 Brentford 2
Nov 9 2009 by Steve Brown, The Journal
DELIGHTED but disappointed, Gateshead live to fight another day in the FA Cup.
Against League One opposition, the part-time Tynesiders – in Blue Square Premier – were satisfied at holding Brentford to a draw, especially since they trailed with just a minute of added time left.
They deserve to be enthused, and yet deserved more.
For while relieved at having earned a replay at Griffin Park on Tuesday week – and the chance of a second round clash with Walsall – Gateshead could, and possibly even should, have won.
Leading through Bees keeper Lewis Price’s own goal, they then suffered an eight-minute double-whammy when ex-Newcastle striker Carl Cort, then Kevin O’Connor, scored. Three minutes into four of added time, Peter Winn – on loan from Scunthorpe – scrambled an equaliser.
That only told half the story, however, as Gateshead were the more impressive outfit all told, so much so that boss Ian Bogie was justified in his summation that any neutral might have been misled into believing the hosts, rather than Brentford, were the Football League outfit.
“I’m disappointed, but pleased,” Bogie said. “I thought we did enough to win, we dominated the first half, started brightly in the second and scored a deserved goal.
“Then we looked as though we were going to kick on and get a second but Brentford got one. The important thing when scoring a goal is your concentration levels stay high. We’ve conceded six or seven minutes after we took the lead.
“If we had have shut up shop for 10 or 15 minutes we might have won the game, but credit to Brentford, they’ve shown their experience. They took a 2-1 lead, then there was a lull in the game when they were happy to see things out.
“We threw the big man (Armand One) on to unsettle them and put them under a bit of pressure, we just had to get something into the box. We showed great character and got a deserved equaliser and it keeps us in the tie.
