Tuesday 10th March 2009
Blue Square North
Blyth Spartans 2 Alfreton Town 2
Spartans: Paul Farman, Kenny Boyle, Gary Brown, Gareth Williams, Richard Pell, Andy Leeson, Adrian Webster, Chris McCabe, Robert Dale, Marc Walton, Ged Dalton (sub Simon Todd 70 mins).
Subs not used: Stuart Banks, Adam Laidlaw, Liam Gildea & Graham Fenton.
Spartans two up in under half an hour dropped 2 valuable points to a late equaliser against play off hopefuls Alfreton Town.
In fact the home side were in the lead after only 2 minutes. A throw in from Adrian Webster found Marc Walton who released Robert Dale down the right wing his centre was missed by a couple of defenders in the box before Gary Brown turned the ball home past Stephen Dickinson.
On 29 minutes Dale set Walton in on goal his first effort was parried by Dickinson but he made no mistake with his second chance.
Martin McIntosh slotted home for the visitors after Spartans failed to clear a corner on 36 minutes to give them a life line going into the break.
Blyth should have had the match tied up when Dale and Walton again combined to set up Ged Dalton one on one with keeper Dickinson, but the keeper did well to block Dalton’s effort.
Spartans paid the price when Paul Clayton picked the ball up 25 yards from goal and hammered it home with 5 minutes remaining.