Northumberland Senior Cup

Nov 24 2009 by Steve Brown, The Journal

THEY will hand rare run-outs to a number of fringe stars tonight, but Mick Tait insists Blyth Spartans are taking the Northumberland Senior Cup seriously.

The Croft Park club plays host to Northern League Division One strugglers Morpeth Town in the cup quarter-finals, nursing a plethora of injuries.

Robbie Dale (knee) and Chris McCabe (ankle) are out, John Brackstone (rib) and Mark Bell (knee) doubts and Ian Graham (groin) and Paul Brayson (knee) were previously carrying injuries ahead of last Saturday.

The latter pair played, but Blyth had just four on the bench and made no substitutions. Three of that four – new signing James Marwood, Simon Todd and Josh Gillies – are likely to get a run out, with Brackstone still a doubt.

But manager Tait maintains he is not taking the competition, nor the opposition, lightly.

“We go into every game that we play trying to win it, we’ve done that all season,” said Tait, whose side were yesterday drawn to host fellow Blue Square Premier outfit Ilkeston Town or Mossley, of UniBond North, in the first round proper of the FA Trophy.

“It hasn’t always looked like that because we haven’t played as well as we would have liked to in some games. But we want to go through into the next round.

“We will be favourites but I’ve got one or two lads who haven’t been playing a lot of football recently, so I’ll be giving a few of them a game.

“We’re carrying a horrendous amount of injuries at the moment and there might be one or two who I need to give a rest to. I’ve brought in young James Marwood, he’s been training with us for a few weeks.

“Physically he might struggle but ability-wise he’s as good as the players we’ve got. We’ll just see how he fits in and if he enjoys it. I would imagine he’ll get part of the game. The lad hasn’t played for quite a long time.

“He’s been training and keeping himself fit but he hasn’t played a lot of football recently, so 90 minutes might be too much for him but we’ll certainly give him part of the game.”

In the other quarter-finals tomorrow night, Bedlington Terriers entertain Ashington and Whitley Bay travel to West Allotment Celtic, while the fourth tie between Newcastle United Reserves and Newcastle Benfield is a week today.