Michael Connor makes hard work vow ahead of Blyth Spartans visit to Warrington Rylands

Michael Connor has warned a ‘big building process’ lies ahead as he prepares to kick off his reign as Blyth Spartans manager underway at Warrington Rylands on Saturday.

Connor brought an end to his 13-year association with Blyth Town last weekend when he accepted an offer to become permanent successor to David Stockdale from Spartans’ new board of directors. After overseeing training and meeting his new squad for the first time on Tuesday night, Connor moved to complete his first new signings by the time a second session of the week was held in front of the club’s supporters just 48 hours later.

Highly-rated goalkeeper Adam Richardson has joined on a short-term loan from Championship club Sunderland and will be handed an immediate debut against Rylands on Saturday. Defender Ben Fell has also joined on loan from National League club Gateshead as Connor is reunited with a player that earned last season’s Northern League Division Town player of the year award during his time with Blyth Town. More signings are in the works and Connor is hoping he can boost his squad further ahead of his first home game in charge aa week on Saturday when Matlock Town are the visitors to Croft Park.

With the hard work continuing behind the scenes, Connor is looking forward to focusing on on-field matters after a week of change at Spartans as he expressed his desire to create a team that are willing to give their all for the club’s supporters.

He said: “The goodwill only lasts so long in football and it’s a fickle world we live in. The lads trained well on Tuesday and we train in front of supporters tonight (Thursday). We have a big building process ahead of us and to be fair to the likes of Gateshead, they are helping us massively in getting things done. There is a lot of work to do, I like to get things done because we are just waiting for the right players to come in and clubs have helped us massively in that sense.

“Sunderland have helped us, Gateshead are helping us and we need two or three more in because we have key players out - but there are no excuses for us. This is where it starts, we will have structure and a way to play and the people of Blyth want to see players giving their all. That is what they will get from this Blyth Spartans.”

Connor is awaiting news on the fitness of a number of players before he finalises his plans for his first game in charge.