Goal in first-half stoppage time sinks Spartans
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Stockdale felt the timing of the only strike, from Olie Shenton, was ‘a little bit criminal’ and came from ‘one of the only lapses in concentration’ from his side.
But when you’re down on your luck, you’re down on your luck, and Spartans remain rooted in the NPL Premier relegation zone as the hosts secured their first home win of the season at the sixth time of asking.
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Hide AdThe three points took Leek up to fifteenth while Blyth remain second bottom.


Spartans take on eighteenth-placed Gainsborough Trinty at Croft Park this weekend in game that has six-pointer written all over it.
“If you put your chances away, especially away from home, when we had them, I think it changes the game and I think we could have controlled it,” Stockdale told BSAFC TV after.
Shenton arrived in the box to sweep a Tim Grice header across goal low into the net after two additional minutes.
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Hide Ad“It didn’t change my team-talk too much, but it was like we need an end product so take your chances, and the lapse in concentration, so the two things that came out would have been one thing, which was put it away.”
Blyth enjoyed plenty of possession at their fellow strugglers but couldn’t find that cutting edge – and it cost them.
“I felt that we controlled it quite well. We worked a lot on shape and people knowing their jobs and I think it showed.”
“I’ve had a few sleepless nights and made a few phone calls to people in the team on how I wanted to go about it because I felt like it needs to be now broken down and simplified. I think it showed but we lacked quality in the final third,” continued the manager.
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Hide Ad“The intensity that I asked for they gave me in the first half and it dropped the second. The lads didn’t have a proper pre-season and it’s hard to ask for that intensity for a full 90 minutes, but they tried.”
“It’s soul destroying for me and I won’t sleep again now. A few lads have said why have you texted me at four in the morning and it’s just that I want to improve and I believe that I can.”
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