For Blyth Spartans manager Mick Tait this week will be about what he calls ‘body management’.
But with Tuesday’s Blue Square Bet North game at home to Redditch coming along and then the FA Trophy quarter final tie with rivals Gateshead next Saturday Tait was dealt a ‘body blow’ when midfielder Michael Tait was injured during the weekend’s defeat of visitors Hinckley. He is likely to be out for at least two weeks with a hamstring problem.
“Losing Michael is a massive blow and I will have to look carefully at what team I put out on Tuesday taking into account the huge game against Gateshead,” said Tait.
Before that however Tait reflected on a convincing 4-0 home victory over Hinckley. Although it didn’t look to be going that way until after half time.
The scenario wasn’t equal to the one at St James’ Park recently when Newcastle were 4-0 down to Arsenal at the break only to come back and snatch an unlikely draw but spectators at Croft Park on Saturday may have harboured similarly low optimism levels after 45 minutes during which the home side huffed and puffed. But in the second period they blew Hinckley’s house down with devastating force.
Tait explained his side’s slow start: “I knew Hinckley were in a rich vein of form so we went out with a safety first attitude. We’d all spoken about where they were dangerous and we planned to nullify the threat from their front two and then press on later in the game. We needed to play midfielder Neal hooks a bit deeper than usual to stop them getting balls in to the forwards’ feet. We managed to force them to play high balls in and Chris Swailes and Wayne Buchanan, in the middle of our defence, were able to cope with that nicely.”
Hinckley had the upper hand from the start and Dan Lowson in the Blyth goal made three excellent saves to keep the visitors at bay. The Spartans did have chances however with Michael Tait heading over twice.
“I was reasonably happy to go in at half time at no score,” said Tait. “We knew we could step up the pace and start to play better football even though the pitch was claggy. We talked about taking the shackles off in the second period and we did just that and were immediately rewarded when John Alexander put us ahead within a minute.”
A measured Robbie Dale pass found Alexander on the left wing. The former Billingham Town striker was brought down near the touchline and, from the resulting free kick, met the ball sweetly at the near post to head down and in to the net.
Thereafter Blyth were, in Tait’s words, ‘scintillating’. “That goal let us loose, you could see the release throughout the team,” he added.
Fifteen minutes in to the second half Man of the Match Michael Tait, constantly in the thick of the action, coolly held on the ball and, seemingly through intuition, sensing full back Dan Groves’ audacious overlap, cunningly lifted the ball over the Hinckley defence for the 19 year old, pictured left, to run on to and deftly flick the ball home.
Tait then withdrew Alexander and replaced him with the on loan Josh Gray. “John has had an appendix out recently and, on top of a knee injury, I thought I’d save his legs for next week as, after all, he’d given us a good hour,” he explained.
Blyth added another two goals within minutes. First Dale scored from close range after a mazy Neal Hooks run and then Michael Tait made it 4-0 following quick footwork by Nicky Deverdics.
Blyth’s joy was dampened when Tait’s injury forced him to withdraw – he being replaced by Liam O’Mahoney. But still Blyth surged forward with Groves unlucky not to add to his tally and Dale having a shot cleared off the line. The Spartans’ swashbuckling style was epitomised when Dale back heeled a shot towards goal which was cleared by a beleaguered Hinckley defence.
The Blyth boss was relieved, after the game, to find out that a blow to keeper Lowson’s elbow does not appear to be serious. However on top of Michael Tait’s loss star striker Paul Brayson, who missed the Hinckley game, is still struggling with a thigh injury although he may be fit for the Redditch game on Tuesday.
Tait said: “I’ll see how Brassie [Brayson] is and, with Josh gray and Alan White cup tied for the Gateshead game, I might make a couple of changes. It’s not a matter of putting the Trophy ahead of the League it’s just managing the situation so we have enough bodies for Saturday.”
Looking ahead to the weekend’s huge encounter Tait said: “Losing Michael has certainly made things more difficult for us. He and Hooks in the middle of the park have been excellent for us this season. They’re good mates and play really well together. Those two along with Nicky Deverdics in front of them have been the heart beat of the team but there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ll just have to get on with it.”
Asked about the Spartans’ chances against their Conference premier opponents Tait said: “Ask any of our lads and they’ll say we have every chance, and that goes for me too. We are the underdogs but we do have players who could play at a higher level and we’ll go into the game with great confidence. I’ve seen Gateshead play and know how they play. I don’t expect them to change that much against us and they’ll be confident too on the back of a good run. But were not so interested in what they do. At half time on Saturday someone came in to our dressing room and said that Gateshead were 5-1 up away at Wrexham. My players simply looked up and said ‘So what?’
It’s that kind of focus and self belief that Blyth will take in their biggest game for some seasons.
Fans should note that the crowd will be segregated with away fans in the Plessey Road end and home supporters entering Croft Park from the Kingsway end.