Morpeth Town begin preseason campaign with North Shields defeat

Morpeth Town boss Craig Lynch has delivered an optimistic verdict on his side’s display against North Shields at the weekend, despite the friendly clash ending in defeat.

Having named two vastly altered XIs for the first and second halves, Town went in level at the interval, with neither side having found the back of the net. A flurry of action after the break, however, would eventually lead to North Shields edging the contest 3-2, with Aaron Chungh scoring both of Morpeth’s goals.

But Lynch was largely pleased with what he saw from his team on Saturday afternoon - even if the final result did not go their way. Speaking at full-time, he said: “[It was a] Good run out. First and foremost, that's what we're here for. I knew it'd be a good game against Brian’s [Brian Smith] North Shields team. They’ve got some good players, they’ll be up near the play-offs, and for us we're just getting minutes into the lads' legs, having a look at a couple of things we worked on in training on Thursday night.

“Some of it was good - could we have done it more? Yes, so it’s just implementing that and persisting with it. But seven out of the 20 lads out there were teenagers... We ended up with six teenagers on the pitch, with two defenders for the last 20 minutes, obviously the way the game has gone.”

In a untimely blow, Morpeth would lose experienced campaigner Josh Robson to injury partway through the first half, and reflecting on the setback, Lynch continued: “Very disappointed in the first 20 to lose Robbo, who's gone off with an injury - which, again, I was hoping it would be a different season than last season, and that’s a disappointment.

“But look, some good stuff today. Some of the young lads were brilliant. Owen Gray from the academy, he's really impressed us in training. He's come in, started up front, moved to the left, and we’ve even asked him to go left-back for the last 25 minutes, and he’s just got on with it, tried his best.

“We've created six or seven chances there, three or four should be put away, if not more. But look, the goals that we conceded, probably looking back, we could do more about them. But with the overall game, and who we've had playing, it's probably a fair result.”