FA Trophy: Blyth Spartans 2 Stafford Rangers 0

Nov 22 2009 by Steve Brown, Sunday Sun

THEY must be sick of the sight of Paul Brayson, Stafford.

As a Northwich Victoria player, Brayson made a habit of scoring against Rangers. Yesterday, he haunted them again.

It means Blyth Spartans are through to the first round proper of the FA Trophy and await Monday’s draw with relish.

However, it was not plain sailing.

Manager Mick Tait said: “I am pleased we are through, as over the 90 minutes we deserved to win.

“We did not play that badly in the first half, we just did not play with enough tempo and it was easy for the opposition to stop us playing because we did not move the ball quickly enough.

“We had a chat at half-time and said we only needed to up it 10% and if we did we would win the game.

“We did that in the second half. We just needed to work a bit harder, and when we did we were dominant.”

Eventually.

Last Saturday against Eastwood Town, the matchday programmes failed to turn up. For half an hour yesterday, it was the team’s turn. Edgy, anxious, tentative. Not that Stafford were that much better, but they at least went close through Tom Thorley and Nick Wellecomme.

“Give it to Robbie!” one young fan implored on 25 minutes, unaware the totemic striker – Dale – is recovering from knee surgery.

Still, mere mention of his name seemed to inspire Blyth,

By half-time they were bossing matters with John Alexander, Stephen Turnbull, Gareth Williams and Mark Doninger all threatening the visitors’ goal.

Alexander in particular, for on 40 minutes the striker – everyone in Croft Park, in fact – thought he had scored.