AFC Telford United 2 Blyth Spartans 2 - Report

Ultimately, a point against a team also mired towards the foot of the table looks and feels like a disappointment; however, the fact that Paul Carden’s team managed to salvage a draw is a positive. The negative in this game was the fact that such a rescue operation was necessary, writes Rich Worton.

The Bucks established a 1-0 lead, and whilst never genuinely in control, they seemed to be doing enough; that all changed when Spartans manager Terry Mitchell made two inspired substitutions to turn the game on its head. Staring at a damaging defeat, the Bucks kept going, and their equaliser centred on a moment of genuine quality from Byron Moore, setting up Devarn Green for his third goal in Bucks colours.

Carden’s only change to the team that claimed a vital three points last weekend came in midfield, where Keaton Ward returned in place of Robbie Evans. Ward showed a real appetite to influence the game, combining work-rate with passes both long and short as he tried to get the Bucks moving forwards.

Within the first five minutes, Blyth forward Lewis McNall left an impression on both of the Bucks central defensive duo of Jordan Piggott and Harry Flowers, arriving well after the ball had gone on two occasions. He showed decent footwork shortly after, his low, near-post cross-shot stopped by keeper Luke Pilling, and from the loose ball the Bucks had to block another well-struck shot, conceding a corner.

Width was the key for the Bucks, with Green and Moore often overlapped by full-backs James Melhado and Ryan Burke as they tried to get beyond the Spartans defence. Melhado forced a corner on the right with one strong run, and soon after fired in an inviting cross that neither Jason Oswell or Green could make contact with as it fizzed through the six-yard box.

Ward’s eagerness to press Blyth high up the field forced Blyth to concede possession to Green, only for Alex Mitchell to be equal to his near post shot. The Bucks were gathering momentum, but through no fault of their own it was soon halted.

There was a stoppage on 20 minutes as assistant Luis Martin received treatment from Bucks sports therapist Adam Paget; Martin continued, but the appeal over the PA system for any qualified officials inside the ground to make themselves known didn’t bode well. Play stopped again in the 23rd minute, and stayed stopped for a full 15 minutes as officials and management from both teams discussed the options.

By a quirk of fate, Chris O’Donnell, brother of Blyth midfielder JJ and a qualified referee, had travelled from Bedfordshire to watch his brother. With the agreement of both managers and with his two young sons in the stands with his parents, O’Donnell took the flag for a most unexpected assignment.

Both teams had tried to stay warm and active during the cessation, and from the restart Blyth seemed to have done a better job of it; Pilling got comfortably behind Connor Thomson’s stabbed shot from the edge of the box, and O’Donnell then fired a low shot just wide to Pilling’s left.

The Bucks began to respond, and Blyth were panicking when Green beat the offside trap and the onrushing Mitchell to lift the ball towards goal; Green was floored in the challenge and Spartans were happy to concede a corner to prevent Moore reaching the ball to turn it into the empty net.

With two minutes of the additional 15 having passed, the Bucks took the lead, and it caught most people flat-footed, most crucially Spartans keeper Mitchell. Brendon Daniels, showing more tenacity than he had against Gloucester, stopped Blyth clearing and skied a cross high into the box; Mitchell waited underneath it, like a fielder waiting to take a catch in the deep in a game of cricket, but didn’t anticipate Oswell challenging him. The Bucks striker timed his jump ahead of Mitchell and back-headed the ball over him into the unguarded net for his 12th league goal of the season.

Blyth didn’t crumble, and immediately the Bucks had to put bodies in the path of the ball to stop it reaching Pilling’s net. O’Donnell tested Pilling, and the Bucks keeper was equal to his rising shot that looked destined for the top right-hand corner until his intervention at full stretch.

The additional time contained more action than the rest of the half; Flowers was booked for a late challenge and after Green had forced a corner, Oswell ended the half with his right boot held together with tape after Patrick Almond clumsily stood on him, ripping the boot from his foot.

The second half began with Blyth lively once more, Flowers blocking a shot en route to Pilling after McNall had held the ball up well for a teammate. Liam Nolan blocked an O’Donnell shot, and in response Daniels sent a free-kick high and wide of the angle of post and bar from 25 yards.

Green was testing Blyth’s defence, and when released by Burke his cross was nodded away from the waiting Oswell, Ward and Moore getting in each other’s way when both swinging and missing at the loose ball. Green then drew a booking for Almond, who could only stop the Bucks man by grabbing him, and soon after was caught in the face by a raised boot from Toby Lees, the defender at Green’s back as he controlled the ball.

At this point, Spartans manager Mitchell sensed the moment was right for speedy but diminutive Angelo Cappello, and his impact was almost instant. Cappello struck the supporting structure behind the goal with a 25-yard shot, and in the 70th minute, he levelled. Released through a gaping hole in the Bucks defence, he raced onto the ball and found Pilling’s bottom left-hand corner with a confidently struck shot.

Seconds after the restart, and with the Bucks wobbling, he was at it again, a low shot through a crowded penalty area almost finding the same corner. Carden had already replaced Daniels with Evans, and quickly exchanged a tiring Ward for the lively Mace Goodridge.

Blyth suddenly carried the greater threat, and when McNall made way for Danny Barlow, Mitchell struck the jackpot for a second time. With the Bucks again looking laboured, a shot from the left made its way through to Barlow at Pilling’s far post and the substitute couldn’t miss, gleefully turning the ball home.

That goal came in the 82nd minute, and Bucks fans must have been looking at one another in astonishment. Their team’s old habit of contriving to throw away a lead once more had returned.

Carden threw Marcus Marshall on, Nolan making way, but time was against them. Four minutes of added time gave them a small window of opportunity, and they took it. Three extra minutes had passed when the Bucks found Moore on the right, and with just enough space in which to work he delivered a superb curling cross that Green attacked at the far post, forcing the ball in as the bodies clattered together.

It was relief for the Bucks, but heartbreak for the Spartans, who remained two points adrift of Carden’s team instead of overtaking them.

In truth, having been bottom of the table at Christmas, nothing the Bucks have done under Carden has been easily achieved. Anything worth achieving will involve hard work, but just occasionally, you wished the Bucks could make things easier on themselves.

Teams

Telford (4-3-3): Pilling, Melhado, Burke, Flowers, Piggott, Nolan (Marshall 82), Ward (Goodridge 73), Daniels (Evans 68), Moore, Green, Oswell.

Subs not used: Bood, Lilly.

Scorers: Oswell (45), Green (90).

Cautioned: Flowers, Oswell.

Blyth Spartans: Mitchell, Liddle, Buddle, Lees, McKeown, Reid (Cappello 63), Deverdics, O’Donnell, Almond, Thomson, McNall (Barlow 77).

Subs not used: Djalo, Robson.

Scorer: Cappello (70), Barlow (82).

Cautioned: McNall, Almond.