Saturday 5th April 2008
Blue Square North
Nuneaton Borough 1 Blyth Spartans 1
Att: 852

Spartans travelled to the new home of Nuneaton Borough with the home side looking to cement their play off position in the top 5 of the Blue Square North table.

The visitors created the first opening, when from a Ben Christensen throw in Robert Dale headed down to striker Martin Holuhan who volleyed narrowly over from inside the penalty area.

But on 14 minutes the home side took the lead. Mark Noon was allowed to run into the Blyth penalty area before Adam Bartlett blocked his effort and Andrew Leeson unfortunately saw his clearance fall at the left foot of Connor Franklin who hammered the ball home from 25 yards.

Blyth came close in the last minutes of the first half when Christensen shot over.

10 minutes into the second half Spartans saw manager Harry Dunn shown the red card and sent to the stand after an argument with the assistant referee after an elbow on Steve Birks.

But just after the hour Spartans were level. Robert Dale’s dribble into the area saw defender Gavin Cowan clatter the Blyth player to the ground and from the spot kick Gareth Williams hammered the ball home.

The home side pushed for a winner with sub Danny Williams heading wide but the Spartans again showed again that they are no push overs away from Croft Park!!

Spartans: - 1 Adam Bartlett, 2 Ben Christensen, 3 Kenny Boyle, 4 Andrew Leeson, 5 Peter Snowdon, 6 Gareth Williams, 7 Adrian Webster (sub Chris McCabe), 8 Alex Gildea, 9 Robert Dale, 10 Martin Houlahan (sub Ged Dalton), 11 Steve Birks (sub Michael Hedley)
Subs not used: - Graham Fenton