Morpeth sign midfielder from National League side

The young midfielder enjoyed a good loan spell at Morpeth at the end of last year and when he was released by parent club York City, boss Criag Lynch moved quickly to get him to put pen to paper.

The Highwaymen have also recently added Morecambe defender Nathan Snowball to their ranks on loan from the League Two side.

Both players were in the side that went down 4-1 at FC United of Manchester last weekend, where Lynch felt the Mancunian’s clinical finishing in the box proved decisive.

“Gez Sithole for them has been the difference by far with two goals and two assists and just being clinical. We’ve been beaten 4-1 and people will look at that, but we’ve had good chances – they were the better team in the first 35 minutes by far, but we sat in, knew what we had to do, and at 1-0 down we didn’t panic,” said the manager.

“We came out in the second half and put the pressure on and it’s just a mistake, not taking care of your pass, and Sithole, who is probably one of the fastest players I’ve seen in a while, has gone through and made it 2-0.”

Jay Fitzmartin had shot the Reds ahead in the ninth minute and Sithole added that second in the 57th minute.

But sub Fenton John came off the bench and reduced the arrears just eight minutes later in front of another big crowd of 1,384.

“Fair play to the lads, they’ve scored a good goal from a penalty then we’ve put the pressure on again and should be doing better in their half. The they’ve gone up the pitch and won a free kick that they’ve scored another goal from and killed it.”

“They’ve scored a fourth which has obviously seen the game off but we’ve had chances. We had chances at 1-0 down, chances at 2-1 down, and 3-1 down to get back into it, we’ve had one cleared off the line – we’re just not taking them and that’s two games now in a week where we’ve had four good chances. You can’t expect the lads to score every one, but we’ve had eight chances over two games and we’ve scored a penalty. So that’s a bit of a worry for me at the minute.”

Sithole added his second in the 73rd minute and Adam Le Fondre rounded things off five minutes later.

Morpeth are back at Craik Park on Saturday when they host second-placed Guisley in another tough fixture.

“The key thing is that you’ve got to be clinical in this League and they’ve got a player today who has and we haven’t.”