Blyth Spartans continue promotion push with 3-2 win over Matlock Town

Blyth Spartans strengthened their burgeoning promotion hopes and made it 10 consecutive wins at Croft Park on Tuesday evening, beating play-off rivals Matlock Town in a five-goal thriller.

A first-half goal from Jed Abbey had the visitors ahead, but a quickfire Dan Lanning double after the break put Spartans back in the driving seat. Matlock levelled the game midway through the second period, but Jack Foalle scored for a second consecutive game to hand Blyth a 3-2 victory, and a huge three points.

Marc Nash’s home side almost got off to the perfect start when Jakub Zmich slotted the ball home early on, but the referee contentiously chalked off his effort after deeming Lanning to have interfered with play from an offside position, despite not touching the ball.

From there, Nathan Haslam’s men responded well, and claimed the first goal of the night through in-form striker Abbey. A free-kick was delivered to the back post, forcing Callum Dobson into a save, but the Blyth stopper could only parry the ball into the path of the Town forward, who tapped home with ease.

Spartans were quick out the blocks for the second half, and were swiftly rewarded when Jordan Summerly worked the ball into the box before being hauled down, with the referee pointing to the spot. Lanning stepped up to cannon his penalty off the underside of the bar and into the back of the net to level the game.

Lanning then made it 2-1 just three minutes later, charging through one-on-one before calmly slotting into the bottom corner.

For their part, Matlock were clinical from set-pieces, and would level the game through Ethan Kachosa as a quick free-kick caught Blyth cold.

But Jack Foalle scored for a second game running to put Spartans back in front with a composed finish into the top corner. Blyth would then have the ball in the back of the net a further three times after taking the lead, but all three strikes were ruled out for offside.

Tuesday’s result sees Spartans leapfrog Matlock in the NPL East table, with Nash’s side climbing up to sixth, seven points adrift of leaders Bradford Park Avenue. Blyth’s next outing comes away from home against Grimsby Borough on Saturday afternoon.

At the time of writing, Grimsby are 18th in the table, having taken 14 points from their opening 14 matches. The Wilderness Boys did, however, beat Beverley Town 2-0 last time out.