Blyth picked up the three points against Grantham on Saturday. It wasn’t the best performance of the season but manager Tom Wade explained that he thought that there were three contributory factors to that.
“The conditions, the wind and a bobbly pitch didn’t help either side,” he said. “Plus, from our point of view we’ve been on a high after the big games against Nantwich and Salford and we found it a bit difficult to come back down to earth for a bread and butter match. We found it difficult to deal with. When you start to think you should win a game sometimes things fall apart.
“Then there was the fact that Grantham did a job on us. They were strong, direct and looked to simply pick up the pieces. I’d said before the game I’d be happy with a one nil win for us and, to be honest, we battled well enough.
“We dominated the first half and they shaded it after half time. I believe we deserved to win on the basis of chances created although we didn’t keep the ball well enough although the players who had to come in because of injuries did very well.”
The Spartans boss looked forward to Tuesday’s game at Workington.
“It’s top versus second top so it should be good one,” he said. “On paper it’s our hardest game of the season but we’ve beaten some of the top teams away from home and we won’t be phased by it. It’ll be tough but we can’t wait.”
Blyth are likely to be without Alex Nicholson and Andrew Cartwright, both of whom have foot injuries. Defender Ryan Hutchinson may be available while forward Daniel Maguire is still about two weeks away from making a comeback.