On a wet and miserable night in the Meadow Well, Spartans were comfortably beaten 2-1 by rejuvenated North Shields side thanks to goals from former Spartans Jamie Holmes and Lee Mason.
Spartans began with Michael Hogan in goal, Joe Oliver at right back and Henry Harvey (trialist) at left back, while Harrison Clark and Ryan Donaldson slotted into the heart of the defence.
Michael Woods acted as the holding midfielder this time out, with Reed and Deverdics either side of him. Gordon and Aitken were on the wing, while David Allasan (trialist) began up front.
In all honesty, the first half was a really difficult watch. While the conditions weren’t great, they didn’t exactly make the pitch unplayable at all. It took 15 min’s for a real clear cut chance to emerge, with former Spartans Jamie Holmes and Lee Mason linking up well to create a chance that ended up well over the bar.
It was at this stage though that The Robins really came into the game and began to look like the stronger side. A few moments later, Shields went 1-0 up after breaking down the centre of the pitch and out numbering the Blyth defence, former Spartan Jamie Holmes found some space on the edge of box and tucked away a canny goal.
While Lucas Reed and Charlie Aitken were impressing for Spartans, the rest of the team struggled to really react in a positive manner – and North Shields continued to control the game.
On the half hour mark, former Spartans winger Lee Mason managed to win the ball back just inside the Spartans half and unleashed a canny effort at goal in an attempt to chip Hogan from roughly 40 yards out but thankfully, his effort went wide of the post.
As the half time whistle approached, midfielder Lucas Reed (who had probably been our best player) went off with what looked like a knock. Hopefully it’s just that though, and we’ll see him again come Friday.
Before half time though, the hosts made it 2-0. After finding success down Blyth’s left flank a few times, a ball finally split the defence to find Mason, who tucked home to double The Robins lead.
In the second half, Spartans came out with a renewed vigour. Michael Woods especially, as he came out thrashing around with some heavy tackles that went down well with the Spartans faithful.
Charlie Aitken ended up being dragged down moments into the second half and as ever, Dev’s slotted away the penalty with ease.
Spartans maintained pressure on the Shields back line after that goal but bar a shot that was blocked a yard or so in front of the line, we didn’t really create all that much in the final third.
The only other big Spartans chance came around the 70th minute, when a trialist had a ball laid off to him on the edge of the box – but the shot went straight at Shields keeper Finlay Hodgson.
With a whole raft of substitutions in the second half, the flow of the game changed and we looked rather disjointed throughout the team. Most of the trialists that came on were really able to impress as a result,
Gee Baltazar and Marcello Benidetti came on during the second half, with the later looking dangerous at times. Gee was played up front – which I don’t think is a natural position for him in all honesty. A few other lads made appearances late on, though we had absolutely no idea who they were.
In the final 15 minutes of the game, Spartans fan Andrew Gibson came on in goal for North Shields and looked rather comfortable when dealing with crosses and corners.
The only other talking point late in the game was a Shields effort from Euan Anderson, which was saved well by Olly Marshall in the Spartans goal – who had replaced Hogan at half time.
After that chance, the game really fizzled out and Brian Smith’s side sealed a deserved 2-1 victory. It might have been far from a classic, but North Shields passed the ball around with ease and carved Blyth open time and time again throughout the night. If they’re not in and round the Northern League playoffs, I’ll be very surprised.
Arriving a bit early to sample a pint, we were able to catch Nobby giving some tactical instructions prior to the game in between an industrial and a pair of broken fridges – which did tickle us all a bit.
In all honesty, despite being a former international footballer who’s played in the Champions League several times, Nobby does seem like a very down to earth bloke. Seeing him interact with supporters at both games thus far, he appears to have absolutely no airs and graces about him at all.
If any of you caught his interview with Newcastle Fans TV last week, you’d have seen he seems rather keen to put aside his reputation and a player and focus purely on building himself up as a manager. In all honesty, you can’t help but respect that mentality.
Unlike some former Newcastle players we’ve had in charge of the club, he seems to be genuinely motivated and enthusiastic about the chance to manage Spartans. Based of his character and his attitude thus far alone, you can’t help but want him to succeed.
That all being said though, he really needs some proper reinforcements now to help him out. If we’re being realistic, at present we still need a senior goalkeeper, a centre back, a left back, a right winger, a left winger and an established striker to really flesh out this team. On top of that, he still probably needs an assistant manager beside him who’s rich in non-league knowledge.
Given that the league season doesn’t begin for another month, and we have a history of not fully assembling squads until later on in pre-season, it would be unwise to panic too much just yet – as we do still have time to put together a team, despite a lot of the bigger and better names having already been signed up by other sides.
Ultimately though, there is still a lot of work to do.
As for North Shields themselves, it really has been all change down there now. Under the control of the North Shields Athletic committee and the Supporters Association, it’s like new life has been breathed into that football club. A perfect example of which can be seen by the newly decorated Social club.
The new committee were all extremely welcoming, and it was great to catch up with Chris Lowther (Anth’s brother) who was top craic.
With things heading in the right direction on and off the pitch for The Robins, I’ve no doubt they’ll be back amongst the Northern League’s elite come the end season. Hopefully they’ll be able to eye a return to the NPL East in the near future.