Newcastle Blue Star’s Spring tour continued on Tuesday night with a trip to Carlisle and although there was nowhere near maximum attendance at Gillford Park, Marc Nash and his players returned to NE15 with maximum points.
A full complement that Blue Star had to earn the hard way and with a half-time team talk being far less than complementary due to going behind in the first half, the KD Stadium outfit would have to play far better in the second.
Thankfully for the handful of supporters who did make the journey to Cumbria on Tuesday, an improvement after the break was precisely what Blue Star offered and with precise finishes from Michael Ndiweni and Conor Macleod, the deficit in the first 45 mins was eventually overturned.
Victory in what is Blue Star’s third successive away game in a row and with a fourth to follow at the weekend, it is Newcastle Benfield who once again follow them in the Northern League Division One table.
The jostling for fifth and sixth continues at large and although Benfield began the week in the last of the playoff paying positions, their ticket to the end of season party has been erased from the guestlist at the time of writing.
Then again, it is not just securing fifth that manager Marc Nash is focusing on, it is also the opportunity to finish as high up the table as possible and the greater the end of the season ranking, the greater the opportunity (in theory at least) of winning promotion through the playoffs.
While the way to increase that opportunity is to consistently increase the points tally which is on the board and with a number of promotion contenders still to face between now and April, every point matters in the race for the top five.
At the same time, every point matters at the bottom of the table and this is where Saturday’s hosts also come into the equation. Tow Law Town currently sit on the lowest rung of the league ladder and need to make serious inroads on the likes of Seaham Red Star and Whickham above.
They may sit bottom going into Saturday’s visit of Blue Star but sometimes the teams that are fighting for their lives are the most difficult of all and this outfit should not be underestimated – especially as they came out on top by a single goal in this season’s reverse fixture.
Something which sets up tonight’s clash rather nicely indeed. A big thanks to Tow Law Town for their upcoming hospitality and for those attending from an away perspective, safe travels both there and back.
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