Colin Myers apologises as Blyth Spartans fall to Heaton Stannington defeat

Blyth Spartans manager Colin Myers has apologised to supporters after his side fell to a dramatic home defeat in Tuesday night’s home clash with Northern Premier League East Division rivals Heaton Stannington.

The North East clubs were separated by four tiers of the Non-League pyramid as recently as three years ago, as Spartans competed in the National League North and the visitors battled for promotion from Northern League Division Two.

However, it was the Stan that looked leagues above their hosts as Dean Nicholson’s men punished an abysmal first-half display from Spartans by easing into a three-goal lead by the time the half-time whistle had been blown at a shell-shocked Croft Park.

Leighton Hopper opened the scoring with 11 minutes on the clock with a neat header from a Dan Stephenson cross before Jay Errington doubled the Stan’s lead just after the quarter-hour mark with a cool finish.

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Unlikely comeback

Former Spartans striker Dale Pearson added to the lead seven minutes before half-time, and matters went from bad to worse for his old club as midfielder Matty Slocombe saw red just seconds after Alex Payne added a fourth for the visitors.

The seeds of what always felt like an unlikely comeback were sewn 20 minutes from time when a Benji Shodeinde penalty reduced the arrears for Spartans, and their hopes were raised when the Stan were also reduced to ten men as Ben Milburn was shown a red card for dissent.

On-loan Hartlepool United youngster Joe Aungiers grabbed his first Spartans goal with 11 minutes remaining, and a tense finale was set up when Jack Vaulks added a third goal with injury-time approaching.

With four minutes of added-on time slipping away, there was one final push from Myers and his players and the most dramatic of equalisers was inches away as Dan Maw crashed the crossbar with a volley from the edge of the area just seconds before the full-time whistle was blown.

Unacceptable

A dejected Spartans boss, Myers, refuted claims that his side’s improved second-half display offered some room for positivity and insisted their performance was ‘nowhere near good enough’ for the club.

He told The NLP: “There’s no positives for me in that performance, and you can take the second-half performance, you can say we got back into the game, but I don’t think we did.

“We scored goals, Heaton Stannington rested on their laurels, they let us back into the game, but we would have lost heavily if they did what they did in the first half.

“It was absolutely unacceptable and I categorically apologise to the fans. It’s not acceptable at all and I take full responsibility for what happened.

“I’m speechless because we’ve been competitive in most of the games and we are lacking that goalscorer, but that first-half was probably the worst I’ve seen for a manager.”

Phenomenal

If anger and frustration were the prominent emotions in the home dugout at full-time, those in the away dugout were a picture of relief and elation.

Stan manager Dean Nicholson and assistant manager Andy McBride were showing visible signs of disbelief as their side’s comfortable lead came within the width of a crossbar of being wiped out in the final moments of an incredible contest.

However, the win, no matter how it was secured, was all that mattered for the Stan as they moved five points clear of the East Division relegation zone ahead of a home double-header with North East rivals Bishop Auckland and Newton Aycliffe.

“For 65 minutes we were brilliant, we were fantastic, some of the attacking play was phenomenal and at one stage, it looked like it might go to five, six or seven,” he explained.

“But a moment of madness changed it, we went down to ten men and what followed was insane. We will take the positives, we will analyse the negatives and we will move on.

“There is frustration, the game didn’t have to be and shouldn’t have been like that at the end so we have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

“When I took over at the club, would we have been dreaming of coming to Blyth Spartans in a league game? Probably not!

“So to come here, play how we did for 60 or 65 minutes, and then win the game, is a huge positive.”

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