Lynch disappointed as Morpeth Town fall to Senior Cup final defeat

Morpeth Town manager Craig Lynch could not hide his disappointment after his side suffered a defeat in their Northumberland Senior Cup final meeting with Heaton Stannington.

After securing their highest ever league finish during their Northern Premier League Premier Division campaign, confidence was high amongst the Highwaymen players as they prepared for their St James Park showdown with a Stan side that have enjoyed a history-making season of their own.

It was the NPL East Division club that created further history as they lifted the Senior Cup for the first time with a penalty shoot-out win in front of the Gallowgate End after the two sides had failed to break the deadlock over 90 minutes.

Speaking after the game, Lynch revealed his disappointment over the defeat but praised The Stan for their performance in their first Senior Cup final since 1980.

He told The Gazette: “It’s been a great season and I probably take a little bit of the blame for tonight.

“We’ve not really played this formation against a team that’s sat as deep against us - so maybe I should have looked at it differently but we are riding on the crest of a wave coming into the game. We we just ticking the games off and in the formation we haven’t killed teams off but we’ve looked comfortable and I didn’t think either team looked like scoring tonight.

“It’s hard to be disappointed after the season we’ve had but just after the game, that’s how I am feeling. It’s gone down to penalties, it’s the luck of the draw. I’d always back Dan Langley to save a penalty, he did it, but we’ve missed more than that. It’s disappointing but fair play to Heaton Stannington because I thought they were brilliant tonight and they’ve had a fantastic run. They deserve it.”

“Tonight was a little bit of a wake-up call”

Lynch will now look to add to his squad throughout the summer months as he looks to build on what has been a largely positive season for the men from Craik Park. However, the Highwaymen boss revealed that he was given ‘a little bit of a wake-up call’ at St James Park that means he will need to make one further addition to his ranks before the new season gets underway in August.

“We will try and sleep tonight and then we will look at where we are at,” he explained.

“There’s been a few things happened tonight, which is good, because people show their true colours at times. People will be moving on after tonight and that’s fair enough. We have to bring an extra player in now so I’ll be speaking to potential new signings and meeting them to do that. It never stops but we have to build on this season and what happened tonight was a little bit of a wake-up call for me so we will move on from there.”

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