Morpeth Town boss Craig Lynch bemoans 'flat' display in Blyth Spartans defeat

Morpeth Town fell to a 1-0 defeat against Blyth Spartans on Bank Holiday Monday as an early Charlie Wood strike handed all three points to the hosts at Croft Park.

The Highwaymen’s testing start to the new NPL East campaign continued in front of a 1,075-strong crowd, with both sides reduced to 10 men in a dramatic affair.

Spartans opened the scoring after just four minutes when Wood emphatically met a Jack Foalle corner, but Morpeth nearly hit back on the quarter-hour mark, with Paul Van Zandvliet intervening to clear an effort off the line.

Van Zandvliet would be involved again before half-time as he was dismissed for kicking out at Morpeth attacker Aaron Chungh, but the visitors’ numerical advantage would be wiped out with just under half an hour left on the clock as Danny Barlow was sent off for a second bookable offence.

From there, Blyth held on for the three points with relative ease, and speaking after the final whistle, Town boss Craig Lynch gave an unflinching assessment of his side’s display. He said: “It was a bit flat, wasn't it? It's a good finish for their goal, and then after that, I thought we grew into the game. I thought we responded well for 30 minutes. I thought we got into some good areas.

“And then from 30 to half-time, I don't know what the issue was, but the passing went. They put a little bit more of a press on to try and stop us playing, because I thought we probably just had a little bit better of a game. But we know the bits of play and we know the different triggers for how we want to play, and I just thought we stopped doing it. And then it just petered down, and obviously we got a bit of luck with a red card on the 45th minute, and then you come into half-time and go, ‘Just relax and just get the ball and just move it with intensity’.

“And then I thought we came out until Danny got sent off, and then it was like a preseason friendly - moving it so slowly, complete opposite of what we wanted. We needed to build it up, move them. But when you're moving the ball so slow and you're not moving and you're not trying to get into positions to try and hurt them, they were probably clapping their hands. It was flat.”