Morpeth Town end preseason with Redcar Athletic defeat
Morpeth Town were beaten 3-0 by Redcar Athletic on Saturday
Morpeth Town concluded their preseason campaign with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of NPL Premier outfit Redcar Athletic on Saturday afternoon.
A sluggish start saw the Highwaymen fall two goals behind inside the first ten minutes at Green Lane, and while they did steady themselves somewhat, Craig Lynch’s visitors failed to bounce back from those initial blows, eventually conceding a third in the closing stages of the contest.
But despite the result, Morpeth assistant manager James Armstrong believes that Town’s final runout of the summer could still prove to be a valuable one. Speaking after the final whistle, he said: “I think they [Redcar] are a very, very good side. They showed it today in abundance, but I think it's probably what we've needed really because we've played quite a few under-21 teams and it's not going to be under-21 teams next Saturday or in the next coming weeks. It's going to be a stern test, and I think the boys will get a lot from that game today. Yes, everyone sees the score-line and thinks ‘3-0...’, but it'll do the boys a lot of good, I think.
“The first 20 minutes I thought we were really slow, both in terms of with the ball and without the ball, which has not been us in the past couple of weeks. We lost too many duels, I would say, in the midfield and our quality with the ball was quite poor, which has not been like us. But after that we sort of grew into the game. We got into some good areas, and yeah, it just wasn't quite there for whatever reason today.”
Morpeth will begin their season proper with an NPL East clash away at Pontefract Collieries on Saturday, and Armstrong is confident that his side will be ready for the challenge. He continued: “We’ll train during the week and then we'll do the preparation work for the game, but I think the boys are ready physically. We'll hopefully have one or two available for the game on Saturday, but I think we're ready. The quality wasn't quite there today, but we know that we’ve got it and I'm sure we'll be fine.”