Despite Saltburn Athletic being drawn at home in this North Riding County Cup match we elected to play at Kader, Middlesbrough.  Kader were riding high in Division 2 following a good run of form in which they had just beaten the League leaders Mount Pleasant. Conditions were good for this North Riding County Cup game. Saltburn took the game to Kader and had the better of the early exchanges creating some good goal scoring opportunities     which unfortunately were not converted by Josh Hudson and Sam Clark who were playing up front. Saltburn were up for this game and their commitment was apparent. It was however Kader who took the lead against the run of play. A ball in to the box from the left wing was met by the Kader forward whose early strike eluded William Walters in the Saltburn goal. Saltburn continued to press forward putting some good passing moves together but the equaliser did not come and at half time the score remained at 1 -0. The team were encouraged to approach the second half with the same confidence they had shown in the first half. The continuing pressure on the Kader defence soon paid dividends. Alex Whiley collected the ball outside the penalty area and side stepped two or three Kader defenders before hitting a low shot in to the keeper’s bottom right hand corner to level the score at 1 -1. This spurred Saltburn on and the Saltburn defence (and in particular Charlie Whitfield and Elliot Graham) were resolute reducing Kader to half chances in front of goal. The Saltburn midfield of Liam Williams, Alex Whiley, Mark Atkinson and Steve Hoggard showed some determined tackling to gain the advantage in the middle of the park.

It wasn’t long before Saltburn seized the initiative when Josh Hudson picked the ball up in the box and hooked a shot across the goal to put Saltburn 2 -1 up. Cool heads were now required and to the team’s credit they battled away as the clock was running down. Saltburn were now winning the majority of 50/50s and some slick passing made it very difficult for Kader to get back in to the match. With less than one minute of normal time remaining Alex Whiley received the ball some 25 yards from goal on the Saltburn  right and without hesitation looked up and struck a lovely shot which looped high over the keeper to put Saltburn 3 -1 up and seal their place in the quarter finals. Some very good performances were put in by several Saltburn Players but the Man of the Match was a joint award to Alex Whiley (who led by example scoring two goals) and to Liam Williams who had his best game in a Saltburn shirt.

Following the enforced break ( due to the extreme weather ) the next game was an away match at St.Francis of Hartlepool on 7/2/10. The lack of games showed in the performance and several missed opportunities in the first half proved to be very costly to Saltburn. Despite the 0 -0 half time score it was St.Francis who broke the deadlock to record a 1 - 0 victory.  

The next match was an away game against League leaders 21st Allstars from Darlington who are now favourites to win the League Title. It was a physical battle fought out on a heavy pitch. Brad Naughton played in goal to cover in the absence of regular goalkeeper William Walters and other absences left Saltburn with only 12 available players. Chances were limited with few clear cut goal scoring opportunities. Saltburn did get the chance to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty following a foul on Josh Hudson. However Alex Whiley's resulting penalty struck the post. Rather like the previous match it was the opposition who scored the crucial goal to record a hard fought 1 - 0 victory. On reflection the Saltburn team deserved a draw and can hold their heads high following a very creditable performance. 

Under 14s