Solano points to positives despite Blyth Spartans home defeat against Hebburn Town
The Spartans manager suffered a defeat in his first competitive home fixture.
Nolberto Solano delivered a positive assessment of Blyth Spartans performance in their narrow home defeat against Northern Premier League Premier Division newcomers Hebburn Town.
Both sides got their league campaigns off to eye-catching starts on Saturday as Spartans battled to a 2-2 draw at Ashton United and Tuesday night’s visitors claimed a 1-0 home win against Warrington Rylands in their first ever fixture as a step three clubs. Solano handed a debut to former Rotherham United left-back Joel Holvey after he penned a one-year deal with the club on Monday and there were competitive home bows for the likes of Ryan Donaldson, Michael Woods and Mitchell Curry.
It was the visitors that made the better start as Amar Purewal and Olly Martin both went close before Spartans managed to get a foothold in the game and started to cause issues with Joao Gomes and Donaldson both going close. The deadlock was finally broken 20 minutes from time as Hebburn claimed all three points with a deflected effort from former Hartlepool United youngster Leo Robinson.
Despite some late pressure, Spartans were unable to force an equaliser as their resolute visitors held firm - but Solano was still keen to take the positives as his side suffered a defeat in the first competitive home fixture of his Croft Park reign.
He told The Gazette: “Compared with the match on Saturday, we did a lot of creating good chances but that’s football. We always say we need to finalise the last pass, that quality you need in the last pass but to be honest I am so pleased with these guys because they are working really hard. We have to remember we only started building this team a couple of weeks ago but I am looking at a lot of positive things. Today was fantastic, but of course, we are not happy to give the fans the result they are expecting and we always try to please the fans. But I think they were quite happy with the team and we are looking forward and being positive.”
One of the main positives for Solano was the performances of on-loan trio Max Storey, Dan Savage and Joao Gomes, with the latter providing several eye-catching moments and almost snatching a late point for his side. The pace and directness of all three caused some issues for a dogged and disciplined Hebburn defence and Solano believes there is more to come from the youngsters.
He said: “You can see Gomes’ talent, especially up front with Max (Storey) and Dan (Savage) up front, these three, they gave us that extra pace in the team. The final ball is a little bit off at the moment but they are emotional, they’re young lads, they will grow up and progress. I am really pleased with them. Mitch is a good striker too and we need to get him fit because he hasn’t played a lot in recent months. We will get there, we need to keep thinking in a positive way and believe what we are doing.”
Next up for Spartans is another home game as they host Lancaster City on Saturday afternoon.