Spennymoor Town Football Club

After the disappointment of Ashington it was a very important week for us with games against a resurgent Marske, a tough quarter final against Ryhope and a big game against Benfield on Saturday. We have managed to achieve what was required from Marske and Ryhope and we now look forward to Benfield in a game we need to win against a very useful side.
Marske were on a very good run so to make the start we did was very pleasing, the first 20 minutes was football of a very high order and the movement was exceptional. Unfortunately, as we have done on previous occasions we didn’t  kill the game off which is disappointing and frustrating as at half time we emphasised the fact that we need to keep the tempo up and score more goals, it’s certainly not something I say to the lads to ease up and after the game, although we achieved our objective of the 3 points we all knew the second half wasn’t great.

As a manager you always want to lead your team out in a final,I was lucky enough to do it last year albeit with the wrong result but Tuesday was an opportunity to match last year and reach the semi-final. We talked about complacency as Ryhope are a very good side at their level and very rarely lose football matches, I watched them myself and saw 1st hand what a good outfit they were.   1st half I was delighted with the way we played and in truth it could of been a lot more. Bobby is on fire at the moment and looks like he is going to score everytime he goes on the pitch and long may that continue. Adam in my opinion had his best game this season and was a threat all night.  You have to give credit to Ryhope for the way they approached the game in the second half ,they gave it a real go and I was delighted to hear the final whistle. Again the mood in the dressing room was disappointment as we know that we shouldn’t of had to make as hard work of it as we did but again we accomplished what we set out to do.  We are still right up there in the league and in 2 cup competitions so we need to stay focused and ready for the challenge ahead.

On the playing side Leon has gone to crook to get some games under his belt and be ready for the run in. Leon is on a 2yr contract and is here for the long haul, he is a big part of the club who is quite rightly frustrated at the lack of opportuites at present and wants to make sure that when he comes back he is match fit and ready to fight for his place.
Jay

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I don’t get carried away when we have great results and likewise after a bad result I am not one who thinks the world has collapsed! Yes things get said in the heat of the moment after a defeat in the dressing room but tell me a manager who doesn’t get annoyed after a loss and I’ll tell you they have no passion and desire to be successful! Because there is a lot of envy towards the club from certain quarters a defeat to Spennymoor gets magnified tenfold and everyone wants a reason why! You don’t hear anything when other teams suffer a poor result but that the nature of the beast being manager and a player of Spennymoor! 

The reason we lost at Ashington was that we defended very poorly both individually and collectively as a team, and Ashington took their chances when they came and on the night thoroughly deserved their victory. We had good possession but failed to make the most of it! It’s not often this season we can say we defended poorly, as the stats show we have the best defensive record in the league, but we did on the night!! When you reflect the following day you look at the bigger picture and realise it was our 1st away defeat in 7 and we were top of the form table going into the game. What we now have to do is make sure we go on another winning run and put pressure on the teams around us. No team has a divine right to win a game of football and when teams play Spennymoor they raise their game and it’s up to us to be able to deal with that starting this weekend.

On a separate note I had a long chat with Gareth last night and I would just like to put the rumour to bed that Gareth can’t play football again!! What the surgeon has told him is that he wouldn’t be able to play full time and train every day. He will get the best possible treatment from ourselves and we look forward to him starting pre season in July.

Cheers Jay

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I was absolutely delighted with the performance on Saturday. Given the awful wind conditions and against a team that score a lot of goals at home, it has to rank as one of best performances over 90 minutes of the season.  Usually a couple of players don’t perform to their usual standards for whatever reason, but against South Shields every single player from 1 to 14 was superb.  We played some tremendous patient football and if Bobby had scored in the 1st half instead of hitting the bar it would of been a fantastic team goal.  I can’t think of Turnsy having anything to do in 90 minutes which, away from home is testimony not just the back 4, but also the work rate of the 3 lads in midfield and the 3 up front. In some ways it was the perfect away performance.

Another pleasing thing is that we are starting to chip in goals from midfield with rasher and Bobby both getting on the score sheet, and the icing on the cake was Sam doing brilliantly out wide to set up Ruds for the 3rd. That’s what you expect from lads coming on to make a difference and I thought Sam and Ruds did just that, likewise Adam against RCA.

On a separate issue Gavin Barton will be leaving the club this week to sign for another northern league club and I wish him every success. Gav has played a big part for us over the last few months and I do believe he will score a lot of goals. Unfortunately we didn’t play to his strengths and that is my fault as the way we play we don’t get the ball in the box enough from wide areas for Gav to be as effective as we know he can be. 

Stevo and Kieran are getting valuable minutes at Norton and after speaking with their manager Stevo he came through his 1st game for over a year with flying colours.

We are on a good run at present and need to keep the momentum up.

Cheers Jay

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The draw wasn’t the  kindest having to play RCA away in the Challenge Cup but to come through it was very pleasing. It was certainly a performance of grit and determination,  especially in the 1st half when RCA playing down the slope like to put you under pressure with balls going forward very early, but I thought we coped very well with that threat. Although we didn’t create a great deal ourselves and didn’t pass the ball well enough you have got to match the other teams effort and we did that.

Second half I thought we controlled the game and looked more threatening, once the first goal went in I felt we would go on to win it. Not many teams will go to RCA and keep a clean sheet! and with the firepower we have we are always going to score goals. It might not have been the prettiest of performances but we are through to the quarter final of the Durham Challenge cup for the second season in a row and we want to eclipse last years semi final and get to the final.

With Turnsybeing ill I had no hesitation putting Deano in, the lad has had to be patient and I believe he is good enough to play for the vast majority of teams in this league and showed his character with a fantastic effort, working with Baz and Turnsy will make him an even better keeper and one we want to keep hold of.

See you Saturday

Jay

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First of all I would like to wish the supporters a very happy and healthy New Year.

With the Consett postponement it meant we hadn’t had a game since Boxing Day so it was natural with the heavy pitch that players were going to be rusty and find things a little difficult.  With that and the fact that Stokesley never gave up throughout the game the 3 points were very satisfying and much needed. I have got a tremendous amount of admiration for the management and players at Stokesley, the way they played on Saturday certainly didn’t look like a team languishing at the bottom of the table and if they maintain that level of performance I’m sure a win is just around the corner. 

When we scored the 1st goal early on I was hoping it would give us the momentum to get a few more. However, we were very careless and gave possession away far too easily resulting in Turnsy having to do much more than I had hoped. Going forward we got into good areas but too often we didn’t produce a good enough cross or pass to finish things off. You can’t question the commitment from the lads as it was 1st class and if you would have given me a 3-0 score line before the game I would have taken it so I’m not too disappointed, especially with 3 strikers getting their name on the score sheet. It was great to see Speedy back in a Spennymoor shirt again, when he became available from Bedlington I spoke to the chairman straight away to bring him back as there is no doubt he is an out and out goal scorer and stretches defences with his work rate. Players for one reason or another make decisions to change clubs but the pleasing thing was that he wanted to come back here over a few other clubs that expressed an interest in him, I have said it many times in my blogs that the grass is not always greener elsewhere and I think Speedy realised that.

We are now in a position for the squad to be freshened up and over the next week or two there will be some development within the squad, we have reached the half way stage when the chairman and I take stock and act accordingly. We have a very big month coming up with some  important games, we have lost 2 league games in the first half of the season and if we replicate that in the 2nd half we won’t be far away again from winning the league. We also want to better last year’s exploits in the domestic cups and that starts with a very difficult game on Tuesday against the current league leaders RCA

Cheers Jay

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