Blyth Spartans 1, Ilkeston Town 4

Nov 2 2009 by Steve Brown, The Journal

Blue Square North

INCONSISTENCY continues to bedevil Blyth. The Spartans have climbed the table of late, yet succumbed all too easily to Ilkeston Town, and at home too.

After Kenny Boyle was sent off, they played better with 10 men, and scored through Adrian Webster.

By then, however, Blyth were behind by four. On seven minutes Amari Morgan-Smith put Ilkeston ahead, David Graham added a second before Morgan-Smith struck twice more to clinch his hat-trick.

“It’s really disappointing, we looked jet-lagged after the last week,” said Spartans boss Mick Tait, whose son Michael was man-of-the-match. “We made a poor start and just weren’t at the races, there was no endeavour and too many times when players seemed to say ‘Somebody else will do that job’, instead of taking responsibility themselves.

“We let them whip crosses in umpteen times and did nothing to try and stop them. By half-time it was game over but when Kenny (Boyle) was sent off, we changed our formation and, with 10 men, we actually did better.

“We put three up front and left two in midfield and it worked well, we played some good stuff. I thought ‘We’re not going out with a whimper’. What would we gain by that? We couldn’t win the game but I didn’t want us to just give up.