Despite a precious, and somewhat unexpected point, gained at Burscough on Saturday in a 2-2-draw Blyth boss Harry Dunn was ultimately left frustrated.
He felt that his side deserved an away win.

“We had enough chances after the first 15 minutes of the match to win it. After we fell behind to an early goal, which we should really have defended better, we had at least two good chances in the first half when Andy Johnson and Andew Leeson should have finished from only yards out” he said.

“Burscough are a decent footballing side and we knew they’d play with three up front who are quick and skilful with leading scorer Kilheeny in particular a bit of a handful” Dunn continued. “ But we stuck to our task and in the second half with Robbie Dale on for Johnson we made the breakthrough. Robbie did really well to set up our equaliser and to score minutes later but the earlier foul on Johnson, which meant he couldn’t carry on, was horrendous! Their lad should have been sent off for it without a doubt but the ref said that the Burscough player had got some of the ball. “And then late on in the game we had Gary Brown who was on one yellow card sent off for knocking the ball away. How can you not be sent off for a dangerous challenge but you can for hitting the ball a few yards – where’s the common sense in that?”

In Dunn’s words Dale looked “ more like his old self” coming on as sub after being missing for several weeks due to injury and changing the game in a spectacular four minute spell. Dale deftly threaded a ball though for Martin Houlahan to volley home and then calmly headed across goal to score himself. He also complimented Houlahan whose determined running helped maintain Blyth’s momentum in the second half. It’s likely Blyth will start with that pairing for the crucial home game with strugglers Hinckley on Easter Monday.

One long serving player who missed the Burscough game was Club Captain Peter Snowdon. Dunn made what he referred to as a difficult decision with regard to the central defender. “Peter seems to have been under pressure in his own head recently and it was never going to be easy to leave him out but I got him, Gary Brown and Andrew Leeson together and we discussed the fact that we haven’t been defending well enough recently and that although Peter was going to miss this game it could be one of the others to miss out in coming weeks” Dunn was pleased with schoolteacher Snowdon’s reaction to the news. “It was top class, he just said ‘no problem’ and was determined to fight for his place.”

Considering Blyth’s game with Hinckley Dunn had his players on an alcohol-free weekend. “We got to take all our games very seriously now” he suggested. “We can’t afford to lose against Hinckley who are just one place below us in the League. We should have midfielder Steve Birks back in the squad following illness and he may have to fill in for Chris McCabe whose twisted ankle may mean him missing the match. “I reckon we need two more wins to see us safe and I think we have to be looking at the Hinckley, Worcester, Solihull and Leigh games for them.”

Despite having many things to ruminate on during the Easter weekend Dunn couldn’t pass over referring to next Saturday’s clash at Croft Park when Blyth take on League leaders Kettering. “The big one!” he savoured, revealing that he, and most certainly his squad, are looking forward to the challenge.