Morpeth Town suffer their first league defeat of the season away at Bradford Park Avenue

Sam Hodgson was denied a first half goal against Bradford Park Avenue. Picture: Michael Briggs

Will Lancaster’s 16th minute strike and a decisive second from substitute Chinedu Osadebe in the second half ensured the hosts earned a first three points of the campaign at the Highwaymen’s expense.

The result, though, far from mirrored what was a decent away day display from Morpeth on Monday night, where they saw the majority of possession but failed to convert that into goals.

Knocking the ball around to good effect, the Highwaymen created the best chance of the opening stages when a lovely floated ball forward was chested down by Sam Hodgson. The striker, getting into his stride, was then denied a certain goal by a decent stop by home keeper George Sykes-Kenworthy.

From the resulting corner kick, the home side opened the scoring. After clearing their lines, they broke quickly and with Morpeth players funnelling back, Lancaster stepped inside before curling a left-footed shot past keeper Dan Lowson from the edge of the box.

Andrew Johnson shot straight at Sykes-Kenworthy on 22 minutes before Lowson pulled off a fine save, which we’ve grown to expect, to prevent the free-roaming Jamie Spencer, who shot low but found the legs of Lowson.

The ball rolled agonisingly wide on 51 minutes for Morpeth as they sought an equaliser, popping the ball around nicely and with composure but still unable to find a way through.

Then a clinical home side scored again on 65 minutes, through Osadebe’s superb strike. The forward got the ball on the left side of the box and from a standing start curled a sublime effort over Lowson and in at the far post.

Town kept plugging away, with Hodgson just unable to convert Nathan Nkunku’s 84th minute cross, but couldn’t reduce the deficit as the game ended in defeat on the road and a first loss of the campaign.

The defeat comes after the Highwaymen fought back from 3-1 down with two minutes to go against Matlock Town on Saturday to earn a draw, Danny Barlow grabbing a late equaliser.

The Highwaymen are next in action when they travel to Warrington Rylands on Saturday.