Blyth Spartans slip to defeat at Curzon Ashton to make it four points from five games

Things didn’t start in the best way for Spartans as traffic issues delayed their arrival at the Tameside Stadium and saw the kick-off put back to 8pm, with a few of the Spartans players resorting to doing their warming-up stretches on the coach.

There was a late goal for Spartans, as there was against Brackley Town on Saturday when JJ Hooper’s strike earned his team a point. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t enough as Spartans went down 3-1.

They went in at half-time 2-0 down after conceding in added time at the end of the half before going further behind on 56 minutes when Stefan Mols scored his second of the night.

Hooper got his name on the scoresheet for the second game in a row as he comes back from injury, firing home a consolation goal for Spartans in the 89th minute.

Keeper Alex Mitchell was back in the team after missing Saturday’s game and was called into action after nine minutes, when a defensive error let in Jimmy Spencer, Mitchell pushing the ball out for a corner.

Three minutes later Mols grabbed the first of his brace and just minutes later almost doubled the scoring, hitting a shot narrowly wide of the post.

Spartans finally tested the Curzon Ashton keeper in the 21st minute, Cam Mason proving equal to JJ O’Donnell’s shot.

Lewis Knight then set up Hooper, who misdirected his shot, before Knight and Curzon Ashton’s Craig Mahon both saw yellow.

Spartans left themselves a lot to do in the second half after conceding late on, and made their task even harder when they let in the third.

Manager Graham Fenton started to ring the changes, bringing on Mikael Ndjoli for Knight and 10 minutes after he was introduced, the substitute set up an effort for Hooper, who hit his shot over the crossbar.

Hooper finally got his goal before Ndjoli hit an effort wide a minute later.

Spartans are back on the road again tomorrow when they play Warrington in the Isuzu FA Trophy.