Blyth Spartans manager Mick Tait woke up on Sunday morning with a sore head. It turned out that Tait was struggling with a heavy cold when it could have been assumed he’d been celebrating his side’s magnificent 4-0 demolition of AFC Telford the previous afternoon.
The Spartans thoroughly outplayed the visiting Bucks and could have easily run out winners by a far greater margin.
The Bucks were much less Monarch of the Glen and more like Bambi – buckling tamely. Although this Bambi showed a malevolent streak, which must have been confined to the cutting room floor in the film, as evidenced by the receipt of four yellow cards and one red.
Blyth played promotion-chasing Telford off the pitch.
Understatedly Tait commented, “We controlled the game from start to finish. I’ve had lots of calls from people who came along to watch because of the many local postponements and they all thought this too. It’s useful to have outsiders’ views to confirm your own opinion.
“We totally bossed the game. We were very good up front, our midfield was in charge and the defence was dominant.
“From the start we prepared for the wet and slippery conditions by not overplaying in our half and possibly making mistakes – getting the ball forward early. But when we had control in their half we could play our football.”
Blyth started like they’d been straining at the leash following abandonment and a postponement. They took the lead on 16 minutes when a free kick from captain Gareth Williams was fumbled by the Telford goalkeeper Ryan Young and Ian Graham was on hand to gleefully poke the ball home from close range.
Graham’s fellow striker Paul Brayson came close to extending the lead on three occasions. Blyth right back Darren Craddock suffered a reoccurrence of a foot injury and was replaced by Josh Gillies towards the end of the first half. Stephen Turnbull dropped back to the full back position with Tait wanting to retain his side’s 4-4-2 set up.
“Darren has been suffering from a sore foot for a while and after a challenging for the ball he felt a sharp pain” he said. “We are short of defenders at the moment and didn’t have a ready replacement on the bench. In fact I had two or three subs warming up while I pondered what to do but decided we needed to keep our formation so Josh went into midfield and in fact did well. He’s a young lad and he realises he’s not getting many starts because he’s a bit lightweight but he’ll get stronger. He’s learning too – how to play as part of a unit and how to defend.”
A brilliant curling 18-yard free kick from Paul Brayson sent the teams in at halftime with the home side 2-0 up.
The Spartans restarted with intent and purpose continuing to take the game to their visitors who had their best spell of the game midway through the second half.
Tait said, “I’d been waiting all game for them to get up a head of steam but, other than a ten minute period latish on, it never materialised, and even then they didn’t really penetrate us.”
Blyth’s third goal had a balletic quality about it. Brayson dummied a ball from Dale, spinning away while at the same time Graham glided forward to deftly control the ball, swivel and shoot, seemingly all in one movement, delivering the coup de grace with Young bemused. The beautiful game indeed.
Brayson, with a quarter of an hour remaining, then established himself as the Blue Square North’s top goal scorer with a delightful chip over Young who seemed to visibly age over the 90 minutes.
Telford substitute Sean Evans was sent off in the dying moments for stamping on Stephen Turnbull.
Tait was furious. “I think as a team Telford got frustrated and began to receive cautions. The red card was entirely justified. Stephen slid in, hooked the ball away from Evans, and was then stamped on. Maybe the lad had been getting himself worked up on the bench watching the game – I don’t know.”
The Spartans’ new signing Neal Hooks looked assured in midfield and Tait also had praise for his strikers.
“Neal did well on his home debut. He is a very good footballer and he will be even better when he is fitter, not having played much recently. He doesn’t bomb forward which allows Michael Tait to do just that and he has good vision and touch. We’ll certainly need him with the number of games we have coming up.
“Brayson, Graham and Robbie Dale are developing a fantastic understanding as we saw several times at the weekend.”
Having acknowledged the problem he has in terms of defensive numbers Tait was on the phone immediately after the game and hopes to have strengthened that area in time for Tuesday’s game at Workington.
That will be one headache sorted out. Hot drinks and an early night should work for the other one.
Blyth entertain Northwich Victoria this Saturday. Kick off is 3.00pm.