Blyth Spartans — First Season Playoff

Hello my friends and sorry for the delay, I was very busy these last few days and although I played the playoff games I didn’t have the time to share the story with you. So here goes… We had a wonderful season, we finished 3rd although the media predicted at the start of the season that we would finish 18th, so just reaching the playoff is quite an achievement. In the semi final we were going to meet Tamworth, they finished just behind us in 4th place in Blue Square Northern. I was quite optimistic before this battle because we won both league games that we played against them, 2-1 at home and 1-0 away.

We were going to play the first leg away from home and that was a slight advantage for our counter attacking tactic. My boys were totally concentrated for the game and they played brilliantly, we dominated the game and we won 2-0 away from home with 2 goals scored by my Romanian centre back Remus Ardelean (both goals came from corner kicks!).

I had no fears for the second game, I was sure that we would preserve the advantage that we took in the first leg. We let them have more posession of the goal but we struck on counter attacks, we won the game with a comprehensive 3-1 lead and we were ready for the final!

The final was not going to be played in two legs, only one decisive game against Southport. They won their semi final easily, they finished second in the league. Despite that I felt that we had a slight advantage because we didn’t lose against them in the league, we won the away game 3-2 and drew 1-1 at home.

The game was going to be played at the Pirelli Stadium in Burton-on-Trent with more than 3000 people in the stands, a nice atmosphere for us as we were used to our 800 spectators for our home games. We were very motivated, the lads understood that this was a big chance for them and we won the game not allowing our opponents to have any shots on goal! Our reserve striker Shaun Reay was the hero of the game, he scored twice after half time!

Here is a video capture of the three goals that we scored, I hope you’ll enjoy watching it!

Here we are, the Blyth Spartans won promotion to Blue Square Premier against all odds! Remember, the bookmakers gave us a 150-1 chance to win promotion, if one of our fans might have placed that bet he’d be a rich man right now! The board was thrilled and the fans were ecstatic!

There you go, a great triumph for the Blyth Spartans but now I have to be very wise in pre season and pick the right players for the tough challenge ahead of use, surviving in Blue Square Premier! In the next post you’ll find out all about the pre season, the players that I’m going to buy and sell and the friendlies that we are going to play. Until then, best wishes and enjoy your Football Manager 2009 games!