WARRINGTON Rylands notched up their fourth consecutive home win on Saturday with an outstanding 2 – 1 win over a rejuvenated Blyth Spartans at The Hive Arena.
Despite missing 9 first-team players the home side stood resolute against a Blyth team determined to produce results for their new manager Michael Connor.
The Northumberland outfit sit bottom of the NPL Premier Division but, similar to Rylands, hope to move up the league table now Connor has taken control following his move from Blyth Town.
The Spartans were no pushover and battled head-to-head with Warrington. However, they couldn’t prevent Ben Hardcastle from scoring a brace of goals. Once again the home side came out of the blocks at full power but it took until the 35th minute before the first goal. After the ball had bounced around the goalmouth Blyth believe they had cleared the danger but it fell to the feet of Hardcastle who hammered it through the crowd to beat Adam Richardson in goal.
Luke Pilling, at the other end, had his fingers stung on more than one occasion as The Green Army pushed for the equaliser. Some amazing goalmouth clearances kept them at bay until the 53rd minute when Billy Gordon found the bottom corner past an outstretched Pilling with what appeared to be a miss-hit.
George Waring in action
It was a hard-fought battle with the opposition now believing they could snatch a win, but unlike other weeks when Warrington’s heads dropped after conceding a goal they continued to push forward. Sandro Da Costa hit the post before a foul in the goalmouth resulted in Hardcastle stepping up and beating Richardson again, this time from the penalty spot.
Hardcastle scores from the penalty spot
Warrington Manager Neil Reynolds made some changes to his side in order to see the game out. A smart move was that of George Waring from the number 9 position back into his usual place as a defender creating a back five.
Reynolds praised Hardcastle for his ability to play either side of the pitch and score goals as a bonus, with six goals from his last four games, but also noted that ‘goals were flying in from all over the park’ and his squad were amazing.
He said: “Blyth were a very good side who were certainly fighting for their manager but came across a Warrington side that’s going in the right direction.”
“We deserved the win. Our objective was to climb out of the relegation zone, which we have now done.”
Warrington Rylands now have a week of training before the trip to Scunthorpe United next Saturday in Isuzu FA Trophy.
