It’s not often that a holiday in Benidorm is spoilt by foul weather and heavy rain.

But Blyth Manager Harry Dunn’s Spanish sojourn this week was marred by the fact that he had planned six days in the sun specifically so as to avoid missing any Spartans matches. That idea was on track until the Northumberland Senior cup-tie at Bedlington, scheduled for last Wednesday, was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and was then rearranged for Wednesday coming – the 30th January.

Much to his annoyance Dunn will now miss the tie but he finds some comfort in the fact that he has discovered a match out there to take in on the day of his arrival abroad. Commenting briefly after Blyth’s 1-1 result at home to Gainsborough Trinity, as he prepared for an early Sunday morning flight, he said “It’s a blow but I’ve done some research and there’s a game over there on Sunday afternoon I can get to see!”

He added, “Other than the first 15 minutes I thought we did alright on Saturday. We were the better team and our performance was much improved on those of late. “We gave a bad goal away when we went to sleep a little bit but we could just not get the decisive clincher. “Adam Bartlett in our goal didn’t have a save to make in the second half and bearing in mind Chris McCabe was carrying a foot injury and Alex Gildea struggled with his back we did pretty well.”

McCabe was his usual tenacious self in midfield, constantly driving his side forward whilst ably assisted by Adrian Webster, shifted out to wide right for the game, and the increasingly impressive signing from Washington Martin Houlahan whose link up play and ability to release the ball wisely were of a consistently high quality.
Former Sunderland reserve Ben Christienson was another player Dunn deployed in a different role to his usual position. The fullback appeared to enjoy a midfield role in the second half which saw him regularly stifling the visitors’ build up play.

Blyth Captain Peter Snowdon commented “Ben used to play there as a youngster. He nullified Gainsborough’s attack while also contributing to us going forward. Robbie Dale and Houlahan, playing just behind Phil Bell up front, also did well. Overall the game was like the story of our season – we should have won the game after playing quite well but we’re not getting the results we should – and that we need! But we certainly played better flowing football than recently. In that respect it was more like our away form.”

That away form will be tested on Wednesday evening in the rearranged Northumberland Senior Cup tie with Bedlington, which will see Assistant Manager Graham Fenton in charge of the Spartans, and again on Saturday when Blyth, lying fourth off bottom of the League, make the long journey to take on ninth placed Worcester City in the Blue Square North.
“The Senior Cup is our only chance of winning something this year,” commented Snowdon. “We’re taking the game very seriously and really want the chance to play in the Final again – especially if it is at St. James’ Park.”

Blyth hope to have defender, the former Burnley player, Andrew Leeson back for Saturday along with forward Andy Johnson.
Snowdon knows that the game will be another stern test in the Club’s efforts to stave off relegation.
“We have no illusions – we know we’re in a relegation dog-fight and we must start getting some wins and then building a bit of a run. Personally I’m really optimistic we can do just that, we’re not getting battered every game and are often just missing out on points because of some minor error or bad luck.”

Manager Harry Dunn will be saying “Adios” to southern Spain on Friday in time to be with his team in southern England the following day.