Blyth Spartans strike early to sink Morpeth Town in timely victory

An early Charlie Wood strike proved the difference as Blyth Spartans recorded a 1-0 win over Morpeth Town at Croft Park on Bank Holiday Monday.

Marc Nash’s men secured their first win of the NPL East campaign in front of a 1,075-strong crowd, with both sides reduced to 10 men in a dramatic affair.

Spartans opened the scoring after just four minutes when Wood emphatically met a sumptuous Jack Foalle corner, but Morpeth nearly hit back on the quarter-hour mark, with Paul Van Zandvliet intervening to clear an effort off the line.

Van Zandvliet would be involved again before half-time as he was dismissed for kicking out at Morpeth attacker Aaron Chungh, but the visitors’ numerical advantage would be wiped out with just under half an hour left on the clock as Danny Barlow was sent off for a second bookable offence.

From there, Blyth held on for the three points with relative ease, and speaking after the final whistle, Nash hailed his side for their performance. When asked for his view on Spartans’ win, he said: “Hard-earned. Goes without saying, going down to 10 men absolutely changed the momentum of the game. Early goals settle us down, like the last game, but we were relatively comfortable.

“We were looking good, positive going into half-time and then bang, stupid... The game's full of emotion and we should be doing better in those circumstances, but it is what it is. We're down to 10, which was going to make it tough. But I felt the lads' organisation, discipline in the second half was absolutely top drawer. Absolutely top drawer.”

He continued: “We scored off a set-piece early, and it's great to have that in your locker. It opens up the game and obviously, because of what happened ten days ago in the cup game [against Morpeth], probably gave them some more doubt. So yeah, brilliant start, and a decent enough performance. It was a lot more closely matched possession-wise than the last time, but like I said, the lads have had to dig in, and it was a massive three points. They've earned their money today.”