Blyth Spartans March 2015
We’re getting closer to the grand finale but there’s still a long way to go… My Blyth Spartans played extremely well lately, so we went straight up the table to the top spot, two points ahead 2nd placed Manchester City. More and more people were starting to say that The Spartans might have what it takes to win the title but I was still a bit cautious. In my mind only a good run of results in March will give us a good possibility to fight for the title.
As long as the month started with an away game at Manchester City a good run was not very likely… We drew 2-2 with Manchester City in October, we just couldn’t cope with Vagner Love‘s explosive skills. Now we had to face him again… The game started pretty well for us though, Luca Siligardi scored his first goal for the club and we were 1-0 up at half time. Manchester City were dangerous in attack but somehow we managed to keep a clean sheet. That was until the 73rd minute…
We kept cool after conceding the goal and we snatched an important away draw, we were still the Premier League leaders!
Next up, the first leg of the Europa League clash with AZ Alkmaar. We had to get the most out of the home leg because AZ were very strong at home. We played a perfect first half and thanks to Nicao and Necid we were 3-0 up at the break! Unfortunately my players got a bit complacent in the second half and allowed Alkmaar to dominate the game. We conceded a corner kick goal a few minutes before the final whistle, that will make the away leg pretty difficult.
Until then we had another tough battle to face at home, against Chelsea. They were in 7th place because they just drew 1-1 at home with Wigan! They did beat us in October though, 1-0, we had to get revenge. The game started in the worst possible way, my keeper made a huge error and Chelsea were up 1-0. I hoped to score one goal before half time but my players had other plans… Siligardi and Nicao made two goals right away and then Damien Grange banged in another incredible strike from 30 yards out!
We could have scored another one or two goals in the second half but we missed great chances easily. Anyway, it was a very important win for our morale and for the league table too!
We had a two goal margin before the start of the second leg at Alkmaar but I warned my players against complacency, the game wasn’t going to be easy! In fact, Alkmaar were determined to score and we did well to keep the 0-0 scoreline at half time. Two corner kick goals made the score 1-1 after the break but my goalie was the hero, Silviu Lung, he earned forgiveness for the blunder that he made in the Chelsea game with a few brilliant saves! We were through to the quarter finals!
And we’ll have tough opposition, we’ll play against Italian side AS Roma! If we manage to knock them out we’ll get either Hamburg or Rangers in the semi final! And guess what, we were the only English team left in the Europa League quarter finals!
But before the Roman Holiday we had to continue our Premier League battles. Our next game was away at 18th placed Wigan, a team that we defeated 3-1 at home back in November. They were hungry for points and looked very determined in the first half, they dominated the first 45 minutes. My left back got sent off right before the break so we were in a very difficult situation. We played much better with only 10 men on the pitch though, much better, and midfielders Mickey Wordsworth and John Bostock brought us another 3 points!
We were in pretty good form but unfortunately our last game of the month, away at Wolves, was re-arranged due to international call ups… Manchester United climbed up to the top spot because of that but we were only one point behind them with a game in hand!
I can’t help it, I have to praise Nicao again :) He was absolutely wonderful so far, although sometimes he misses more than he scores. He scored 19 goals and made 14 assists so far but apart from those numbers he is a leader of the team, he always drives us forward when things look bad on the pitch.
April will be a decisive month, we’ll have 7 games to play, very difficult games each and every one of them…
If we’ll manage to stay unbeaten through April then we might be in with a chance… for the title! I also hope that we would be able to get past AS Roma and follow our European dream…