Saturday 2nd February 2008
Blue Square North
Worcester City 2 Blyth Spartans 2
Att: 753

Spartans made the long journey to the Midlands to take on 8th placed Worcester City in this Blue Square North encounter.

Spartans got off to a flyer, scoring only after a minute. A quickly taken throw in on the right by Ben Christensen saw Phil Bell flick the ball on at the near post, for Chris MCabe to side foot the ball past Cameron Belford in the home goal.

Spartans had to defend for their lives. Both Craig Wilding and Chris Smith blasted over when they should have probably done better.

But on the stroke of half time Spartans got a penalty. Gildea finding Bell down the left side of the penalty area and as he rounded keeper Belford the keeper upended him. Referee James Adcock awarded the spot kick and cautioned the home keeper. Robert Dale smashed the spot kick into the roof of the net to put the travelling Spartans 2 up.

The travelling fans were still remembering how their team had done the same last season and came away with nothing, so they had a difficult 45 to go through.

The home side snatched their first just before the hour mark. Substitute David Burtoft broke down the right wing before centring for Matt Dinsmore to tap in from 6 yards. Then on 64 minutes a weak clearance from Gildea gave Burtoft the opportunity to shoot from 25 yards which Adam Bartlett got a hand too but couldn’t stop from going in.

Spartans had 2 good chances to snatch all 3 points. Firstly Martin Houlahan latched onto a Dale pass, before centring into the penalty area but Bell totally miss-kicked his effort wide. Then Michael Hedley went on a run down the right before floating a deep centre to the far post – Bell decided to take his luck on Belford missing the cross but the keeper easily gathered under no pressure from the Blyth striker.

Spartans: - 1 Adam Bartlett, 2 Ben Christensen, 3 Kenny Boyle, 4 Peter Snowdon, 5 Gareth Williams (sub Michael Hedley), 6 Gary Brown, 7 Alex Gildea, 8. Chris McCabe, 9. Robert Dale, 10 Philip Bell, 11. Martin Houlahan (sub Tony Stephenson)
Subs not used: - Richard Forster, Andrew Johnson & Graham Fenton.