Tait’s club vs wedding quandary

Nov 28 2009 by Steve Brown, The Journal

FIRST his family, now the Reds. Mick Tait is already unpopular in his own household this weekend, and is aiming to be Public Enemy No 1 with Redditch United when his Blyth Spartans side travel in to the Valley Stadium this afternoon.

Tait’s daughter Alexis was married yesterday – to much-travelled local striker Andy Bowman – but the Blyth boss was due to miss a post-wedding family function today to be with his side. He has considered – and would have no reservations about – leaving the team in the charge of assistant boss Adam Sadler for the Blue Square North clash.

But if his decision to travel to the Midlands has not gone down well at chez Tait, it speaks volumes of his commitment to the Spartans. And having beaten Redditch at home, Tait hopes his devotion to the club is rewarded by doing the double over today’s hosts.

“I hope to be involved, although I’m not flavour of the month with my daughter getting married,” said Tait. “I’ve told her I’m not missing the game and she’s not very happy about that. It’s not all peace in our house at the moment! It’s crossed my mind to leave it to Adam but it’s not really right to do that.

“He’s more than capable. It’s just the fact that I think I should be there but we’ll see how the week goes.

“Hopefully we can do the double on them.

“We desperately needed a win last Saturday, just to get back on track, and it’d be nice to keep that going.”

They will attempt to do so without Robbie Dale (knee) and Chris McCabe (ankle) but have this week signed 17-year-old goalkeeper Sam Grieveson – recently released by Norwich City and on trial at Newcastle United – as cover.

“Sam has been training with us for a few weeks and has done really well,” added Tait. “He is obviously very young, but will provide back-up to senior goalkeepers Mark Bell and Jack Norton.”