MORPETH'S newest signing Tom Haigh scored the decisive goal to give Town a hard fought winning start to their Northern League Division One campaign.

The visitors were looking to build on their good pre-season results against the winners of the original World Cup and made a good start in the blustery conditions.

Kevin Henderson linked well with Chris Rue, only for West Auckland keeper Farrell to foil the former Burnley striker with a tremendous one handed save.

Shortly afterwards Rue went close when he burst into the box leaving two defenders in his wake, but he placed his effort too close to Farrell who saved at the expense of a corner.

Despite this early pressure, the home side were always looking dangerous on the break and Wells in the Morpeth goal had to be alert in coming off his line to deal with a dangerous cross from Jardine.

Morpeth could not believe their luck in the 30th minute when Rue robbed a home defender, and appeared to be clearly hauled back by the defender in the box as he was about to shoot.

To the surprise of the crowd, the referee did not award the penalty, with the only explanation being that he was unsighted.

Darryl Hall, playing in a back three, had to be at his best to climb high and head away a cross shot from Flockett which looked destined for the corner of the net.

The away side were also fortunate when Flockett missed his kick with the goal at his mercy.

But with just a minute to go until half time West Auckland took the lead following a quick break with dangerman Owens cutting inside Chris Phillipson to fire a left footed shot into the bottom corner, giving keeper Jack Wells no chance.

The second half saw Morpeth come out in determined fashioned with Matti Halambiec and Joe Race on for the injured duo of Damen Mullen and Kevin Henderson.

Within a minute of the restart the score was level, with new signing Joe Race firing home following an excellent run and cross down the right from Rue.

Shortly afterwards, Halambiec tried his luck with a firmly struck 30-yarder which Farrell did well to hold on to.

West Auckland gradually began to play themselves back into the game and some excellent defending from Iain Nickalls and Steve Warwick was required to keep them at bay.

It was the general consensus amongst the crowd that the next goal would prove to be the winner and following good work by Mark Grant, the ball broke to Haigh, who signed this week, and he fired a left footed drive which took a deflection on the way in to give the home custodian Farrell no chance.

Town could have increased their lead on two occasions after this when the ever dangerous Rue broke through the home defence following a good ball from Herron, but on two occasions he was foiled by excellent saves from Farrell.

The hosts, to their credit, pushed hard for an equaliser and after putting an extra man up front Morpeth had a shaky final ten minutes but managed to hold out to secure the points.