Whickham 1-1 Dunston
90 minutes wasn’t enough time to separate the Lang Jacks and neighbours Dunston on Sunday afternoon in the FA Cup Preliminary Round at The First Mortgage Glebe.
Dan Marriott scored his first goal for the club in the first-half to give Lee Haldane’s men a lead.
Harvey Neary – brother of Fin – scored in the second-half to win Dunston a chance to progress on Wednesday evening at Wellington Road.
The visitors dictated the ball for the opening stages of the encounter as Whickham sat back and allowed themselves to grow into the match.
The opener came against the run of play after 17 minutes as Max Nelson sent a lofted ball over the top and Dan Marriott latched onto it, cut onto his right foot and curled a spectacular long-range effort into the corner from 25 yards out.
It could have been two soon after as Lucas Lowery slotted through Harvey Smith who faced an onrushing Aaron Steavens who made himself big and won the one-on-one – with the rebound falling to Marriott who fired well over.
After the break Dunston went searching for an equaliser and five minutes in came close as Phil Turnbull saw his free-kick deflected off the wall and go just over the bar – Michael Pearson headed the resulting corner narrowly wide.
Whickham had what would be a rare second-half opportunity on the hour mark as Cam Brewis took aim with the outside of his foot from a narrow angle and Steavens tipped it over.
The visitors did find their equaliser with 20 minutes to go as Dale Pearson set the ball to the edge of the area for Harvey Neary to guide the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
The replay will be played on Wednesday evening at Wellington Road.
Whickham XI: Wilkinson; Munro (C) (Errington), Agnew, Nelson, Lavery; Croft, Neary, H.Smith; Lowery, Brewis (Hardy), Marriott (Geliher).
Unused subs: R.Smith, Charlton, Moan, Peareth.
Player of the Match: Max Nelson
Referee: Jordan Nicholson
