Solihull Moors 0 Blyth Spartans 1

Manager Harry Dunn I made a few changes to his starting line up from the midweek game. Peter Snowdon had a toe injury, Michael Coulthard had an achilles problem and Scott Bell picked up a hamstring pull. So in came Kenny Boyle, Richard Forster and Christain Graham; also Michael Hedley and Alex Gildea started the game.

After such a disappointing display at home, the work rate, effort and chances created during the 90 minutes at Solihull must have lifted the hearts of players and supporters a like.

In fact the home side only had a couple of chances during the whole game, with keeper Adam Bartlett being equal on both occasions to deny Jozsef Jakab.

Since it was the away side that created the better openings. After only 4 minutes Alex Gildea picked out the head of Michael Hedley, who saw his header turned behind – not too convincingly by home keeper Matt Ghent.

On the half hour, Hedley and Alex Gildea linked up well inside the opposition penalty area only for Alex to pull his shot wide on his weaker right foot.

With the introduction of player coach Graham Fenton for the last 20 minutes Spartans pushed looking for an opening. It eventually came with 12 minutes remaining. Captain for the day Richard Forster found Fenton unmarked in the centre circle, and his well weighted pass into space behind the home defence saw Chris McCabe run 30 yards before waiting for the Moor’s keeper to commit himself and calmly slotted home

Spartans: 1 Adam Bartlett, 2 Gareth Williams, 3 Kenny Boyle (sub Peter Snowdon), 4 Michael Hedley, 5 Richard Forster, 6 Andrew Leeson, 7 Christian Graham, 8 Chris McCabe, 9 Liam Gildea (sub Graham Fenton), 10 Andrew Thompson, 11 Alex Gildea (sub Ben Christensen).
Subs not used: - Michael Coulthard and Chris Shanks