Despite losing 2-0 at home to Gateshead on Wednesday Blyth’s assistant manager Colin Myers was pleased with his squad’s showing.
“It was an excellent work out for us,” he said. “Gateshead had a lot of possession but you would expect that from a full time club. What was especially pleasing, in the first half particularly, was how we held our shape defensively. We got men behind the ball and defended areas of the pitch and resisted going gung ho. We restricted them to long range efforts, which was very positive.
“We were dealt a sucker punch in conceding early in the second half. We had spoken during the interval about making a bright start for the first ten or fifteen minutes. We didn’t, and were caught cold. The second goal was horrendous from our point of view. However we continued to keep our shape quite well. Gateshead were bound to be stronger than us in the last 20 minutes and being without our recognised midfielders didn’t help at that stage of the game.”
Spartans striker Rob Nolan looked a little isolated up front but Myers commented: “Yes, we didn’t have much going forward but Rob wasn’t getting the service he needed. There’s a time and a place for the long ball and we didn’t always get that right. We have been working on the 4-5-1 formation in training. It can be an ideal formation for playing away from home. It can actually be an attacking formation when turning defence into a quick attack. Nevertheless 4-4-2 is still an option which we will also be exploring.”
With several players missing the game through holiday Myers was encouraged by the performance of some trialists. Dean Holmes and Daniel Maguire will be available for Saturday’s home fixture against Clitheroe.
“Our attitude in Tuesday’s game was excellent,” said Myers who will be in charge of the team once more on Saturday in the absence of the holidaying Tom Wade. “I think fans will see more football from us at the weekend when we will continue to take a good l