Despite struggling thus far in pre-season, NPL East side Consett swept Nobby Solano’s Spartans away with a pair of goals in the second half.
Youngster Harrison Bond began the game in goal, with Joe Oliver at right back, Ben Milburn and Harrison Clark at the heart of defence, with trialist Joe Abrahart back in at left back.
The midfield was a tad difficult to decipher, as the shape of it was all over the place. Michael Woods sat in the holding roll, with trialist Belchior Rodrigues and Charlie Airtken in the middle. Lucas Reed appeared to spend most of the first half on the right flank, with former Alnwick Town player Luke Molloy on the other wing, with former Lincoln City youngster Bailey Adamson leading the line up front.
The first 20-30 mins or so were rather dull in all honesty – bar a Consett player rattling the crossbar with a free header about 10 mins in, after they’d broken down our right flank.
The hosts did swing a few crosses into the box and lump some balls forward, but Milburn and Clark dealt with them all rather easily. In fact the pair of them looked quite good player together at the back.
Consett unleashed a few efforts at goal in the final 10 min’s or so, though they were mostly from long range. Either way, Bond saved them comfortably and looked like he was growing in confidence as the half went on.
In the midfield, trialist Belchior Rodrigues was really putting himself about and having a good game. Sadly though going forward, Adamson was cut adrift upfront and we couldn’t really carve any real clear cut chances out for him.
At half time a few changes came, with Harrison Clark being replaced by former Spartans reserve player and current Blyth Town player Yannick Aziakonou. Henry Harvey came on for Abrahart at LB, while Woods had already been replaced by Alex Berham. Zac Benjamin came on for Luke Molloy as well.
Consett started the second half off the stronger side, with many of the trialists struggling to make an impact. Consett brought on striker Stephen Hall, who really began to change the game for them.
The first goal came 10 mins into the second half, when a ball was swung into Hall who was clattered into by Bond, but he was able guide into the path of former Spartans Calvin Smith, who had his shot blocked by Milburn, but he managed to convert his second stab at goal. From then on, it was pretty much all Consett.
While Spartans didn’t exactly collapse, they really failed to create anything or string together any coherent football. A few aimless long balls up to 18 year old Adamson followed, but the he was pretty much abandoned up top by himself.
On the 70th minute mark it was nearly 2-0, when Hall breezed past Aziakonou as if he wasn’t there and unleashed a shot on goal from 18 yards out, but that went narrowly wide.
By now it was only Harrison Bond who was keeping the score down to 1-0, with him collecting crosses, jumping on loose balls and being forced into some decent saves. The best of which came in the 85th minute, making a save from close range from Walker, who’d been put clean through by Hall.
Consett did finally double their lead right before the end though. Some beautiful passing football cut a bewildered Spartans team open, with the ball falling to Will Shaw, who tapped home at the back post.
Bar Consett narrowly putting a free kick over the bar, that was pretty much it. Another game in which Spartans created next to nothing, and likely wouldn’t have scored if we’d played all day long – as we seem to be completely tactically inept in the final third, again.
While it might be pre-season, and results might not matter that much, performances certainly do. Across our 5 games so far, no one could seriously say we’ve looked like a side capable of being remotely competent in front of goal.
It’s now been suggested that we have “about 6” players coming soon from higher leagues. Though with only one more friendly match and realistically just a handful of training sessions to go until the Ashton United game, that’s not exactly a lot of time to get a team to gel, learn or at least adapt to the managers tactical philosophy and form a comprehensive game plan for our first few fixtures.
At present, it’s likely going to take until the end of September for us to have squad together that’s all on the same page and playing a coherent style of football. In terms of the players who supposed to be coming in from a higher level – we have absolutely no idea who they are at present in all honesty.
In recent days though the club have signed a few players up, as we had to have 16 players signed up by Saturday to avoid a fine from the league. Under 19’s Zach Simpson (CM) who scored against Benfield last season, Jack Daley (CB) and Leon Burke (CF) have been signed on league forms.
Though it’s understood all 3 of them will remain with Newcastle Blue Star in the Northern League for now, who they’ve been signed on with since the beginning of pre-season. Another TyneMet player in Luke Parker is said to have signed forms as well. As for the 16th player, they remain a mystery at present.
As for the vacant assistant manager’s role, that needs sorting out ASAP. We were told weeks about it was sorted, but clearly it isn’t. And if it’s true that another big name former professional footballer is set to take the job, it’s clear that they’re being brought in for their name ‘value’ which just isn’t what we need.
Thus far this pre-season, it seems that Nicky Deverdics has been helping Nobby out a lot, almost acting as his assistant in many respects. At this stage, it just makes sense to give him the job. He has the knowledge, connections and respect of many players and people in the region. Which is something we seemingly really need at present.
As for Consett’s ground, that was okay. Like many of the new grounds built in the last 10/15 years that is effectively just a 3G pitch with a clubhouse, it’s not exactly a unique design.
The bar was okay again, though the Stripe was £3.50 for a 430ml can – and it was nearly £5 a pint for a San Miguel, so that wasn’t fun. The biggest disappointment of the day though (more so than Spartans performance) was the Pitman Pie! £3:50 for a pie with soggy pastry and bang average meat, no thank you. Shy’s beats this any day of the week.
Anyway, onto Pitching In Northern Premier League Premier Division rivals Hebburn, who we face away next Saturday – before playing them in the league 10 days later.
HOPEFULLY, we’ll be able to see the foundations of a competent NPL Premier League team by then…
