After playing his part with a hard working display as Spartans lone frontman Robbie Dale was delighted with his side’s start to their Evo-Stik Northern League campaign. Saturday’s impressive draw at Marine was followed up with a strong team display to overcome a dangerous Trafford side at Croft Park tonight and Dale paid tribute to his team mates after the win.
“It’s a great result, both of our first two games have been really tough fixtures but the new lads have settled in and the defence in particular have been amazing. If we keep it tight like that we will win a lot of games because you can see we will definitely score goals”
One clear sign of progression in the Spartans side is the way they bounced back from conceding an early goal. A penalty from Trafford winger Shelton Payne had put the visitors ahead in the twelfth minute but it took Tom Wade’s side just two minutes to get back on even terms and Dale described that as the “perfect reaction” to the early blow.
“We said at half time we had the perfect reaction to going a goal down and maybe last year we would have folded. You have to be proud of the lads efforts today to get the two goals and go in at half time ahead. We got ourselves into a winning position and kept solid to get the win”
There have been many additions over the summer at Croft Park and the latest made his first appearance in the green and white tonight. Winger Arron Wearmouth replaced the unfortunate Dean Holmes just before half time after the former North Shields man had pulled up with a hamstring injury. Wearmouth has been described by Wade as “a young Robbie Dale” and Dale himself praised the impact the youngster had on his debut.
“He’s another option and he’s someone who can run with the ball and takes the pressure off. Instead of the ball coming in to me up front he was another option out wide and he looked really positive and dangerous. He was holding it up and he’s a great option.”