Blyth Spartans 1-2 Blyth Town: Visitors take the honours in historic clash

Former Blyth Spartans stalwart Nathan Buddle came back to haunt his old club as he grabbed the decisive goal to help Blyth Town claim all three points in a historic local derby at Croft Park.

For the first time in their history, the two neighbours faced on in a league contest – although the historic element of the fixture was overshadowed by both clubs finding themselves firming in the battle to avoid relegation from the Northern Premier League East.

It was Town that found themselves at the foot of the table following their Boxing Day home defeat against Hallam – but they laid the foundations for an improvement in fortunes as they took the lead with a well-worked first-half goal from Adam Johnson as the forward rounded off a slick passing move with a neat finish.

That lead was doubled 11 minutes after the interval as defender Buddle, who spent three separate spells with Spartans, headed home at the far post after getting on the end of a corner-kick from Cameron Gascoigne.

Riposte

Spartans riposte came via a penalty from Michael Fowler as the former Dunston UTS and Stockton Town striker gave his side some hope of mounting a comeback with around quarter of an hour remaining.

Marc Nash’s side put their visitors under intense pressure in the closing stages with the likes of Zach Simpson and Dan Maw going close as injury-time approached. It was the latter of that duo that appeared to have grabbed a last-gasp equaliser when his header struck the post before Town keePer Kieran Hunter somehow managed to divert the rebound to safety.

Five minutes of injury-time came and went and that allowed Town to celebrate a historic win that manager Gavin Fell believes has to be the catalyst for an improved run of form moving forwards.

He told The NLP: “The quality in the whole of the game wasn’t really there from both sides. It was just a proper derby game and we could be better with and without the ball.

“I’ve said to the players I asked them for three points, they’ve delivered but the important thing now is can we take that into the next game and the next game and through the rest of the season.

“We need to pick up more points and we need to kick on from this. Some teams will fall off when budgets get cut and we have to capitalise on that.

“We have to close that gap and we have to build on what we have done today.”

Blyth Spartans: Dobson, Kinniburgh, Summerly, Anderson, Vaulks, Wood, Foalle, Dudgeon, Fowler, Van Zandvliet, Millington Subs: Chapman, Downey, Simpson, Joisce, Maw

Blyth Town: Hunter, Fil, Fogarty, Gibson, Fell, Buddle, Giraud, Gascoigne, Potts, Franklin, Johnson Subs: Richardson, De Jesus, Atkinson, Sawyer, Taylor