Spartans packed Christmas schedule against some of the best teams the league has to offer gets underway tomorrow against league leaders and former Championship side Scunthorpe United.
After a drama laden first half of the season, things have finally settled down at Glanford Park under the ownership of Michelle Harness after a disastrous and dodgy few months under David Hilton/Anderson/Mellors/White. Now though, Scunthorpe have purchased their own ground again, more or less worked through their financial off field issues and manager Jimmy Dean has settled the squad once again while leading them to the top of the National League North.
Former Spartan Cal Roberts has recovered from injury, recently racking up 6 appearances and scoring 2 goals and he’ll no doubt fancy his chances against our right back/his houseboy should he continue to start. Scouse journeyman Danny Whitehall leads the line for Scunny at the moment, scoring an impressive 11 goals in 21 games this season. Former Gateshead forward Danny Elliot will likely feature up top as well depending on the formation, as he’s managed 4 goals in 17 games despite only featuring in 51% of the teams minutes played this season. The other player to be wary of is former Championship stalwart Jacob Butterfield, who from midfield has managed to nab 7 goals and chipped in with 5 direct assists so far.
Averaging about 2.2 goals a game in the league (46 in total) with the best goal difference in the league, Scunthorpe have the potential to run through just about anyone going forward in this league so a top tier defensive performance from Blyth will be required to secure any points at all.
Defender Reagan Ogle will miss the game with a knock, as will tricky midfielder Alfie Beestin. Centre back Ross Barrows will also miss the game with an ankle injury. Assistant Manager Chris Plummer spoke to ‘Sports Talk’ on BBC Humberside today, talking about squad rotation so we may not see some their big guns start the game tomorrow but they’ll still be expecting to take all 3 points and create a 5 point cushion at the top of the table.
For Spartans, it’s unknown whether or not goalkeeper Alex Mitchell will be back in action tomorrow after missing the FA Trophy game with an unknown injury. Winger/Striker Lewis Knight appears to be out again with some form of injury and is not expected to play any part tomorrow. Jordan Hickey remains out with a knee injury and fellow centre midfielder Harry Arnison remains doubtful with injury. No word yet on striker JJ Hooper, who has missed the last few weeks with an achilles injury.
Given the injury list and the uncertainty surrounding returning players, a predicted XI would be difficult to put out but we’ll likely see the traditional 5-3-2 with Cedric Main and Mika Ndjoli leading the line for Blyth.
FAN INFO
With segregation in place Spartans fans will only be able to access the ground via the Kingsway entrance, which typically only has the 1 cash turnstile on and usually develops a canny size que when it comes to the bigger games so as ever, we’d recommend purchasing tickets in advance here.
Both sides of the ground will have separate food vans in, though with it being a midweek game shy’s pies won’t be available in the club unfortunately. I’d expect the club to get fairly busy before kick off with the PSV vs Arsenal game and then the Man United vs Bayern Munich games on the big screen.
The club shop will be open again as from 6:30pm and then again after the match for everyone to stock up on Christmas supplies. Home and Away shirts are well stocked at the moment, and they have plenty of new Erreà training gear in.
BETTING PREVIEW
A look at oddschecker doesn’t make for good reading, as Scunny look to be heavy favourites just about everywhere. In fact it’s a struggle to find odds on Scunny to win anywhere that’s even money or better.
To win tomorrow, Blyth are going to need to smash a few goals past these as they can score goals for fun. a 3-2 or 3-1 win for Spartans does get you some very good odds though. As an eternal optimist, a fiver on 3-2 Blyth looks good.
