Preview | Darlington (H) | National League North | 2023/24

Blyth Spartans take on Darlington at Croft Park under the lights on Tuesday night in the National League North.

The Spartans suffered a 1-0 defeat to King’s Lynn Town at Croft Park last time out through a penalty converted by Jonny Margetts in the 69th minute.

TICKET INFORMATION

You can buy tickets with cash or card at the gate on the day or online here. All ticket information is as follows:

  • Adults – £15 standing
  • Concessions (over 65) – £9
  • 11-16 Years & Students – £6
  • Under-10s are admitted for free when accompanied by a paying adult.

To be seated in the Port of Blyth main stand, an extra £2 cost will be incurred for each category. 

Segregation will be in place seeing away fans allocated the Plessey Road stand located at the turnstiles entry situated next to Gino’s Fish and Chip shop. A reminder that drums are also banned from Croft Park and will be turned away while searches and bag checks will be enforced too.

Only home supporters are allowed to access the Clubhouse before, during, and after the National League North encounter.

If any away supporters require disabled access or a seat in the main stand, please contact generalmanager@blythspartans.com.

TEAM NEWS

Michael Liddle made his return to the squad on Saturday afternoon playing 70 minutes, meaning the only injury concern for Jon Shaw’s Spartans is JJ O’Donnell who is still set to miss the rest of the campaign with a dislocated shoulder.

Finn Cousin-Dawson is available for selection having served his suspension after culminating 10 yellow cards.

WHAT WE’RE SAYING

Following a defeat to King’s Lynn Town, Jon Shaw said: “It’s a tough one to take.

“We’ve been on a bad run, you know last week was a tough game so we’ve had some conversations as the weeks went on, we’ve had some frank conversations and we’ve added to the squad.

“We looked like we were in good nick and obviously everybody was quite confident going into the game, understandably we were edge and I think in the first 10-15 showed that.”

Jon Shaw’s post-match assessment of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to King’s Lynn Town

OPPOSITION

The Quakers currently sit three points and three places behind Blyth as they reside in 21st having totalled 40 points this season.

In their last match, Steve Watson’s side lost 2-1 to Spennymoor Town as former Spartan Matty Cornish scored for the Quakers after 16 minutes.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

After their defeat to Spennymoor, Steve Watson said: “We were a little bit wasteful today when we had some good chances.

“We started the game well and looked like the team on the front foot, got a good opening goal, really well worked on the left side and got a lot of joy down the left side in the first half.”

Steve Watson’s post-match assessment of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Spennymoor Town

LAST TIME WE MET

In October the sides met at Blackwell Meadows in a goalless draw. This would also be the case for the fixture in April at Croft Park as the match again finished in a goalless draw.

Before that, in September 2021 at Croft Park, the sides met in a 2-2 draw, which saw The Quakers come back from 2-0 down from early goals from JJ O’Donnell and Lewis McNall.

MEDIA COVERAGE

You can follow all of the action on Tuesday evening via our social media platforms and BlythLive on Mixlr from 7:30 pm.

Posted by Ben Lightfoot