22nd January 06 - Harry - Post Lincoln United

Spartans Manager Harry Dunn, having enjoyed a three-hour journey back from Lincolnshire, commented “It’s always a decent trip home having picked up three away points.”

So, with such a late winner – was it a deserved victory for Blyth?

“Absolutely.” said Dunn. “We could have scored two in the first two minutes and after that we were involved in four or five goalmouth scrambles in their box – any which could have seen us scoring. “I have got to say, however that when centre-back Forster had to go off injured – followed by Chris McCabe and Christian Graham, there was certainly going to be pressure on our defence and I was worried. But as it turned out the only real pressure we were under came in the dying minutes.”

Dunn continued “It was a good three points for us. Sometimes, after a disappointing result like ours last week against Welling in the FA Trophy, it can often take players two or three games to recover but the fact that we fought hard for the win at Lincoln is a good sign and shows that there is a lot of character throughout the squad.”

The loss, on Saturday, of captain Forster could be a big blow for Spartans’ in terms of the rest of the season. “We will have to see how Fozzie’s injury is, but I will be on the phone this week looking for another defender, in a situation exacerbated by Neil Wilkinson’s enforced return to Hartlepool. “On the positive side I thought Scott Bell up front looked sharp on Saturday and worked very hard – the lad just needs a goal to really get him going again. Peter Snowden had a particularly good game and his defensive colleague Andrew Leeson was as solid as ever - missing nothing and never doing anything wrong.”

With Spartans hosting fellow promotion rivals Witton on Saturday Dunn was in realistic mode. "This is a big game for us – as they all are at this stage of the season. Witton have the big lad Moseley up front who is always a handful plus the fact that they have always been a footballing side. If we suffer any more injuries in the Northumberland Senior Cup tie at Whitley Bay mid-week we could well be struggling a little. “We already have Chris Graham and Chris McCabe trying to get over groin injuries,” he added.

The Senior Cup tie remains high in the Blyth Manager’s priorities. “ I have said before that we are out to win as much as we can and we will be ready for the Whitley game. But I have to be realistic about our injury situation. Having said that a negative can be turned to a positive as I hope to field for at least part of the game – left sided players Lewis Dodds, recently returned from playing in Iceland, and former Buckie Thistle midfielder Paul Catto. "In the longer term I would hope that Anth Lowther and Dale Crawford aren’t too far away from returning to the squad.”