'Flying colours' - Haslam hails Blyth Spartans for long-awaited win against Mickleover

Nathan Haslam praised Blyth Spartans for claiming a long-awaited win in adverse conditions after they came from a goal down to earn three points against Mickleover.

Michael Connor’s men went into the game looking to secure the first win of his managerial win and their first maximum since they claimed a 3-0 victory at Stockton Town in mid-September. However, Spartans found themselves forced into an unexpected change when the injured Sam Hodgson was replaced by Shay Richardson midway through the first half in one of two enforced substitutes during the opening 45 minutes at Croft Park.

A Dylan Edwards goal put the visitors in front nine minutes before half-time and there were further blows for Connor and Haslam when another injury saw youngster Zach Simpson replaced by Charlie Aitken. To make matters worse, a tight hamstring brought a third change of the day at half-time as Joel Holvey came on for full-back Joe Oliver during the break.

Rather than feeling sorry for themselves, Spartans came out firing and got themselves back on level-terms just two minutes after the restart as Cyril Giraud produced a neat finish beyond Mickleover keeper Yusuf Mersin. The turnaround was complete just before the hour-mark as first-half substitute Aitken delivered the decisive blow when he struck the goal that would end Connor’s wait for his first win as Spartans boss - and leave his first-team coach to express his relief over claiming three points he believes can give his side a platform for improvement over the coming weeks.

He told The Gazette: “We got the preparation right, we went through the usual team talk and said it was important we got off to a good start, a fast start - and we did to be fair. I thought we controlled large parts of the first-half and it was a bit of a sucker punch going into half-time a goal down. We thought we had enough in our locker to bring it back and we started the second-half in a good way and within 15 minutes found ourselves ahead. It’s a sigh of relief for a lot of people within in the club and it’s three points that give us a platform to build on going forwards.

“They’ve had a bit of adversity to deal with today with Hodgy (Sam Hodgson) going down early and young Zach (Simpson) coming off so we had to make subs earlier than we wanted. We got in the changing room a goal down at half-time, go through the tactics and instructions and Joe Oliver felt a tight hamstring so we had to change it. We had to go through a lot of adaptions today but the boys have come through it with flying colours.”

Spartans now have a free midweek to prepare for next weekend’s visit to fellow strugglers Basford United, who parted company with manager Luke Potter in the aftermath of their 1-0 defeat at league leaders Macclesfield on Saturday.