In the rescheduled fixture from two weeks ago, Blyth Town traveled to the Northern Metal Recycling Stadium on Tuesday evening for a 7:30pm kick-off. Blyth sit second in the table, whilst West were looking to build on Friday’s victory at Easington Colliery.
November’s Player of the Month, Anthony Bell, came into the starting 11, with Archie Dodds dropping to the bench. The night got off to a bad start with West finding themselves 0-2 down within 7 minutes. The first goal was scored after only 4 minutes. Blyth’s Adam Johnson made a direct run towards goal, hitting his shot across West goalkeeper Nick Liversedge, to make it 0-1 to the visitors. That lead was increased only 3 minutes later. Johnson was the provider this time, finding new signing Liam Henderson, who finished making it 0-2. From here, it was always going to be difficult. After only 16 minutes in, Adam Johnson got his second of the game after a shot at the near post. West did manage to pull one back, James Harrison, with his 10th league goal of the season on 39 minutes. West headed in 1-3 down at half-time, and a huge effort needed to turn the game around.
The second half started a bit more brightly, but Blyth were fairly comfortable with West being unable to make any real threat. There were two substitutions for Blyth as Joe Richardson replaced Adam Johnson, and Alex Fil came on for Liam Henderson. Blyth increased their lead on 72 minutes. A weak back pass fell to the feet of Dan Wilson, who chipped the keeper after beating his defender. The fifth goal came due to another West defensive mistake, ending with Ben Franklin finding himself in a great position to make it 5. A tough and disappointing night. West head to Penrith on Saturday with the intention to improve and move forward.
After the game, Gary Forrest shared his thoughts on the difficulties of last night, and the season so far.
“Really disappointing performance. I don’t like make excuses for players but this season we have so far lost Josh Scott, Oscar Fletcher, Liam Potter, Gary Brown, and Layton Watts. Four of the above were major influences on our success last season. All five were leaders both on and off the pitch as well. To lose the spine of the side and nearly 60 potential goals is hard to replace. We have therefore tried to change our style of play to compensate for the loss of these players and build more from the back and keep the ball more. I think this change is one of the key reasons why our performances are so inconsistent. Having said that the minimum expectation of any player wearing a West shirt is to run hard and do the basics well. That never happened last night. They scored 5 times and all 5 were gifts. It’s time to dust ourselves down and decide want we want. Players need to step up and show us they have a desire to play for this football club. The next couple of weeks will show the mentality of this group of players and whether they can deliver against our expectations.”
Full-Time: West Auckland Town 1-5 Blyth Town
Competition: Northern League Division One
Attendance: 121
Match Report by Phil Dodds
