Sooo… that probably could have gone a bit better?
Spartans began the game with young Michael Hogan in goal, Joe Oliver at right back, an unknown trialist at LB and with both Harrison Clark and Ryan Donaldson at centre back.
Michael Woods sat in the holding role, with Dev’s and a trialist (also unknown) in the middle. Another trialist in Marcelo Benedetti started on the left flank, with Billy Gordon and on the right* while Charlie Aitken began upfront.
*We drank ALOT last night and weren’t sure if Billy Gordon played on the flank or the ‘trialist CM’ did. Not helped by the fact that we spent most of the game out of possession and chasing shadows.
While I think it’s fair to say Gateshead kept most of their ‘Best XI’ for Spartans, star men Robbie Tinkler, Callum Whelan and Aidan Rutledge all featured for the Heed against North Shields – in which they won 2-0 comfortably just 24 hours beforehand.
With a slightly stronger team than they fielded the previous evening, Gateshead came flying out the traps. Blyth were able to pass the ball around a bit in the opening few minutes, but Gateshead wrestled control of the game after the 5 minute mark and never looked back.
It didn’t take long for Gateshead to carve Spartans apart for the first goal, with Luke Hannant whipping in a ball to former Spartan loanee Thompson, who found some space between the defenders and comfortably smashed home for 1-0.
It was 2-0 soon after, with forward Oseni holding up the ball to free up the onrushing Will McGowan, who swung a cross in that met Oseni at the back past for what looked like a tap in, as he wasn’t being closely marked.
As for the third goal, we all missed that one as we had retreated to the bar for a drink. As we walked in, midfielder Regan Booty apparently curled a free kick in from 25 yards out to make it 3-0. Watching some highlights this morning, it looked a canny goal in fairness.
The 4th followed soon after. A ball appeared to fall to into the path of Will McGowan about 40 yards out from what appeared to be a defensive clearance? Having missed an easy enough chance before, he strolled down the centre of the pitch without really being challenged and slotted past Hogan.
Delaval’s own Tom Allan had a chance to make it 5-0 right before half time, but his effort went just wide of the post after he did well to find some space in the box.
As for first half positives, there wasn’t much. Woods was throwing himself about a bit and winning some tackles, which went down well with fans. On the left wing, trialist Marcelo Benedetti had some success against the defence – and had someone been open on the edge of the 6 yard box, Spartans could have pulled one back early on. But that’s as positive as it gets really. Michael Hogan did also pulled off a decent save here and there, but to say he was being let down by players around him would be an understatement.
By the time most supporters emerged for the second half, it was 5-0. A was ball swung into the box and a trialist got his foot on it, deflecting it past Hogan in what looked like slow motion.
At this point, the game gets a tad fuzzy as most of us stopped paying attention – and began chatting with fans around us. Some of the lads even retreated to the ‘sun terrace’ after the 5th goal.
Gateshead went onto pummel us with a 6th goal from a trialist, which looked like a simple ball into the path of a forward. The 7th and final goal came from Oseni, though none of us saw it as we’d stopped paying attention by this point.
For the final 20 mins of the game, Gateshead brought on a team of trialists and academy players, many of whom had played against and lost to our own U18’s last season. Quite frankly, they completely outplayed us. They played with a lot of confidence and with a bit more luck, they could have easily made it 8-0.
As for Spartans, we saw an influx of trialits which included Luke Molloy, who previously played for Alnwick Town. Gee Baltazar also came on, as did Zac Benjamin, Olly Marshall and Belchior Rodrigues. A few other lads came on as well, but with all due respect to them, we’ve ne clue who they were and they didn’t really impress.
While it might only be pre-season, losing to Gateshead in that fashion is never fun.
Yes it is pre-season, yes it is about fitness, yes they’re full time, yes a lot of our lads were trialists but nevertheless, the manor of that defeat isn’t really acceptable.
Going back to the last time we were relegated and had to serve a sentence in this delightful league, we played a full strength and full time Gateshead team on the regular, who were arguably much stronger than their current crop.
In 2012 we managed a 1-1 draw, before falling to a 2-0 defeat the following year. In 2016 Gateshead beat us 3-0, though Tom Wade’s Spartans managed to make it a competitive game, despite that scoreline.
So to sleepwalk to a 7-0 defeat without as much as a shot on target is quite simply unacceptable. That performance was frankly, shambolic and “It’s just pre-season” isn’t a good enough excuse. Gateshead didn’t even need to use 4/5 of their regular starters, and still managed to walk through our defence at times as if they weren’t there.
In terms of ‘patterns of play’ we offered next to nothing. We really struggled to establish any kind of style or momentum, resulting in us only getting 2 shots away throughout the whole evening – both of which were off target.
Based of the performances we’ve seen in pre-season thus far, it’s very clear we’re struggling. This latest performance and result should act as a massive wake up call to everyone at the football club.
Realistically, Nobby needs a senior goalkeeper, an experienced centre back, a left back, a left winger, a right winger and a proper striker, on top of the odd rotation player here and there. An experienced assistant manager with non-league manager wouldn’t go a miss either.
As of today, we have 3 weeks to go until the beginning of the new league season – and I think it’s safe to say, a fuck ton of work needs to be done to put a competitive squad together if a title push is genuinely what the club is targeting this season.
I think I speak for most supporters when I say, the idea of a title challenge is a pure fantasy at this point. Right now, we just want a team that fights for the shirt, and wants to restore some pride to the football club after 5 disastrous seasons.
