Blyth Spartans

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Ball in net but 'slight' foul on keeper. Be over soon

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A beauty from Christie free kick top corner. Prob too late

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Still 3 mins left we think

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Lost 2-1.

[YeltzDoc]

I really hope we're saving it up for Monday.

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I'm sure Rob will write a better summary later, but it wasn't a great performance. As usual there was plenty of effort but we didn't really put enough passes together on an admittedly slightly sticky pitch, and hardly created a decent chance.

A quality free kick from Christie (Paul Birch-esque for older fans) gave us a little hope at the death, but all in all probably a fair result.

Good effort from everyone from the homelands who made yet another long trip up to the North East.

Hopefully the players rested today will make a difference on Monday.

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Oh and I just realised I forgot to do any video

[RobYeltz]

Got back in just over 4 hours after a similarly trouble free journey there via the town of Whitley Bay.

When I heard the team I was trying to fathom out how we would be lining up. Trevor confirmed we were playing a 4-2-3-1 formation something like this;

--------------Pearson-----------------
-Green-----Hull----Tilt----Griffiths-
----------Bragoli-----Forde-----------
-Tonks---------Meese-----Granville-
------------------Lloyd-----------------

Subs: Haseley, Christie, Sargeant and Charlton

As it was it was more a 4-4-1-1 formation with Tonks and Granville struggling at times to get forward and support Lloyd. Meese has previously played a little deeper and although he did quite well today didn't see as much of the ball as he has in recent games.

The back four was as solid as ever with Sam having to make only two saves in the first half. Lloyd was doing well upfront showing some neat touches but at times was isolated. Granville made a couple of good runs, but unfortunately the defender was equal to them. Forde and Bragoli did well protecting the back four.
At 0-0 at half time we were reasonably happy but I was a little concerned that they might find another gear and we were probably playing at 95% to stay in the game. Their first goal came from a penalty, I think for handball, as I was at the other end of the ground I couldn't really see if it was or wasn't, but no Yeltz players seemed to contest the decision too much. Their second came probably 30 seconds after probably our best move of the game. Granville managed to find some space after a couple of neat passes but the shot was blocked, they broke quickly before a 1 on 1 against Sam resulted in a goal. John made a couple of substitutions with Lloyd and Meese being replaced by Isedyn and Charlton. Asa went to LB, Griff moved one forward and Granville played just off Christie.

We huffed and puffed and worked hard to get a goal back and Isedyn's free kick was a cracker in the top corner. Sadly, too little too late and the game ended with defeat.

In light of recent performance this was a little different to Frickley, Trafford and Belper in the sense that we didn't create too many chances but in fairness Blyth are a much better side than those three teams. The lack of Ben, Isedyn and Asa fromt he starting XI certainly showed that John has an eye on Monday. Whilst I can fully understand the logic and thinking in this we won't get any more points for beating Stourbr*dge on Monday than we would for Blyth today.

Certainly not a criticism of John, as I say I understand why he did what he did and 3pts against them lot on Monday will certainly ease the 8 hours of traveling today. Well done to the 25/30 or so Yeltz folk who made the journey today Blyth were very complementary about our support.

[pantverdant1]

Concise as ever Rob!