After playing each and every minute of Blyth Spartans four games in the last eight days you may forgive full back Alex Nicholson for letting his standards drop. However with seven minutes remaining of the last of those four games against Stourbridge, the former Newcastle United academy product lashed home his first goal in the green and white to seal, not only three points for his side, but also a man of the match performance.
The twenty yard strike was actually Nicholson’s first senior goal and one that comes during his best run of form for Spartans. The player admitted that he is enjoying how things are going on the pitch at the moment.
“I have never been the sort of defender who just wants to sit back, defend and knock it long when I do get it. I want to join in attacks, go and overlap my winger and link up with the midfield. We are now playing how I want to play and how I enjoy playing, plenty of lads in the dressing room are saying the same thing, that’s why we are happy”
The win over Stourbridge makes it on defeat in sixteen games for Spartans and the three points were “deserved” according to Nicholson, who paid tribute to his side for the patience they showed during a game against a dogged Glassboys side.
“The first half we got frustrated, we had chances but couldn’t put them away. But, we kept our patience and we kept playing the football that we are encouraged to play now and eventually we ran out comfortable winners. We deserved it too because we played very well on the day”
And what of that goal? As mentioned early it is the first goal of Nicholson’s senior career and he admitted he felt relief to see the ball hit the back of the net to spark a noisy reaction from the majority inside Croft Park.
“It is a first senior goal and I have had a few sniffs recently but it just hasn’t happened. But today it fell to me and I was more relieved than anything to see it go in. It was a great feeling”
Spartans midfielder Stephen Turnbull revealed on the eve of the win over Stourbridge that the mood inside the dressing room was positive and he attributed that to the style of play that his side have been displaying over the past few weeks. That is an opinion that Nicholson agrees with and admitted that he is relishing the opportunity to get forward more these days.
“I have never been the sort of defender who just wants to sit back, defend and knock it long when I do get it. I want to join in attacks, go and overlap my winger and link up with the midfield. We are now playing how I want to play and how I enjoy playing, plenty of lads in the dressing room are saying the same thing, that’s why we are happy”
With the business end of the season rapidly approaching Spartans are feeling the effects of their FA Cup run, with a hectic schedule seeing them play nineteen games in the last two months of the season. However, Nicholson is only looking at the positives of such a run of games and still believes his side can still get themselves into the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League play offs between now and the end of April.
“It’s been tough and I have played ninety minutes in each of the games. It’s hard but it is all fitness and now this little run is out of the way we can focus on finishing the season strongly. We aren’t putting pressure on ourselves but we know the play offs are there and we think we can still make it. We will give it our best shot and see what happens”