Buddle on target as Highwaymen secure tenth win on road

The Highwaymen’s experienced centre-back has proved a real threat from set-pieces this season and when Will Dowling floated over a corner shortly after the hour, he took up his position in the box.

Sub Sam Hodgson nodded it back into the danger area, a falling defender drilled a clearance against Buddle and he walked away with a finger raised in celebration as it ricocheted off him into the back of the net.

“One’s hit Budd’s on the backside, he’s took the goal, and the second one we’ve just put it down onto him and it’s unfortunate, but when you’re down there at the bottom you struggle for luck and when we play the way we have done away from home, you get your luck,” said boss Craig Lynch.

The relegation-threatened Gladiators went ahead in the third minute when a cross from the right picked out the unmarked Terry Bondo to head home.

The hosts hit the bar before Buddle had levelled things up, and Morpeth took the three points with eight minutes to go.

A long clearance from Dan Langley flicked off a defender’s head as he went up with Hodgson and the covering Charlie Oglesby stooped to head back to an out of position keeper with the ball rolling into his own net.

“I’m running out of praise for the lads,” said Lynch.

“We tried to do something a little different today in the first half and I think that some of the football we played was brilliant. They’ve scored very easily but the lads didn’t panic, and that’s what we’ve done prior. We didn’t panic, we just kept going and played some good stuff. In the second half we just grinded it out, dug in and then we’ve scored.”

Seventh-placed Town are back at Craik Park on Saturday when they take on a Basford United side who are also down in the relegation places.

“We’ve got four games left and I said to them before the game it’s a hard one, we’re probably too far away from the play-offs now, which is fair enough, but we’ve still got our big game on May 14th against Heaton in the Senior Cup Final, so we’ve got to keep ticking over, we’ve got to keep the positivity going and the momentum going for that game, so I can’t ask any more than what we’re doing,” said Lynch.