As the cliché goes, that was most definitely a game of two halves.
Lining up in a back 4 once again, Arnison was more of a holding midfielder and Knight started on the left acting as inside forward with JJ O’Donnell on the right doing the same.
The opening 5 mins or so would see Chorley controlling possession and passing the ball about a bit better than us, that being before Lids broke down the left flank and hoyed a cross in for Cedric but nobody was around to convert the loose ball and Ced’s touch.
Knighty would later break down the left flank twice, making Chorley’s LB look somewhat stupid in the process but when he broke into the box on both occasions, the final ball into the the 6 yard area lacked accuracy and were both cleared away with ease.
Our passing by this point had become sloppy and inaccurate, with the ball spending and unhealthy amount in time in the air as both teams struggled to find a real rhythm.
Chorley eventually started to play the ball around a bit better, eventually winning a free kick about 35 yards out close to the by-line. The ball was swung in and met by the head of a Chorley player, who flicked it on to the far past and it deflected in. Watching the goal again, it almost seems to happen in slow motion. It must be said however, the marking for that goal was behind questionable.
Cedric had a chance late on in the half to take it around Urwin, but he managed to clear it for a corner. Said corner would result in a potential handball, though only 1 Spartans player would appeal for it.
Spartans went in at the break off the pace and without question the 2nd best team in what at this point was a dull afair. A mixture of poor passing (especially in the final 3rd) and a failure to really press and close down Chorley led to a half time bollocking for the lads.
They certainly reacted to said bollocking early in the 2nd half, with Blyth in control of the opening 10 mins. A ball in from Joe Oliver would find Devs on the edge of the box who chested it down to Lewis Knight who had a clear shot at goal but first time effort was launched well over the bar.
Spartans would continue to get forward down both flanks, with plenty of balls swinging in across the face or over everyone in the box altogether. This would continue for pretty much the entire 2nd half, even when Mika came on for Knighty.
Defensively in second half, Spartans back 4 found their form again and really limited to Chorley to next to nothing. Even Joe Oliver who probably gets a bit of unfair stick at times did well, especially when dealing with star man Justin Johnson.
Spartans goal finally came at the death, which was another freak(ish) sort of goal from Dev’s who floated a ball in to the path of Cedric, who didn’t connect with it and the ball bounced into the back of the net passed Urwin. The first time he’d conceded in over 6 hours of football.
Thankfully the injury Will McGowan went off with in the second half isn’t as bad as it first looked apparently. He was walking around the clurb after the game and will hopefully play a part on Saturday against Peterborough Sports.
Speaking of those delightful southerners, they didn’t play last night so they’ll be well rested come Saturday. Sitting in 20th and only 2 points behind Blyth, they’ve won 5 out of their last 10 games and will no doubt fancy leapfrogging Blyth and creating some space between them and the relegation zone.
As for last nights crowd? That’s a real worry. A sub 500 crowd for the second Tuesday night game is atrocious. Our form of late may not have been superb but we’ve had much worse runs of form in the last 6/7 years and crowds haven’t dropped like this.
Of course, streaming will have played a part in the drop off in crowd numbers. Many would have just used a Firestick rather than paying for it on NLTV though, which is understandable as paying nearly £10 for a single game and being forced to watch it on a phone/tablet/laptop isn’t great at all. Speaking of the stream, that sounded like a total shitshow.
Not only was the stream a shitshow, the National League haven’t given any viewing figures or any idea of how much clubs are even due to be paid for these streams. Were now 4 months into the season and they haven’t released a drop of information. Unacceptable in this day and age.
Alas, onto Saturday we go where hopefully we can start to climb back up into mid-table.
#HowayBlyth