A four-some second half performance saw Morpeth Town brush aside play-off chasing Worksop Town in a 4-0 win at Craik Park in the Pitching In NPL Premier Division.
The Highwaymen were brilliant from start to finish and scored three goals in 11 minutes – from Jack Foalle, Sam Hodgson, and Fenton John – before Will Dowling added further gloss to a resounding scoreline.
The Highwaymen made one enforced change with Ryan Wombwell coming in for the injured Michael Turner, seeing Josh Robson move to left back and Wombwell slot in at right back. Foalle was back in the starting XI in place of Vinnie Steels.
Both teams started with a decent tempo and a desire to press and probe, without finding a clear sight of goal.
A stray header off target on 22 minutes from the Tigers and a Hodgson effort comfortably pushed clear two minutes later summed up the chances for both sides as they failed to break through.
Andrew Johnson had a 41st minute effort deflected past the far post as Town started to exert consistent pressure, but neither side would find the opener in the first half.
The second half, however, was a very different story.
Goalmouth action was delivered almost immediately as Worksop struck the crossbar on 49 minutes, a missed chance they’d rue no more than three minutes later.
Morpeth, nudged along by that chance, took the lead on 52 minutes. John was the architect, the Middlesbrough loanee sliding a superb through ball for Foalle to latch on to. His first shot was superbly saved by Tigers keeper Aaron Chapman, but the follow up was smashed home to give Town the advantage.
That was doubled on 55 minutes when Hodgson struck his 22nd goal of the campaign. The forward, no more than two yards out, crashed home a low cross from Johnson, who had hit the byline with purpose before firing across goal.
A scintillating period in the game saw Morpeth breaking forward at will. They should have made it 3-0 on 59 minutes but Hodgson’s near post flick was saved by Chapman before his follow up header was also pushed clear by the Worksop keeper.
They wouldn’t need to wait long to get that third goal and it was a cracker from John on 63 minutes. The midfielder broke up a Worksop attack and fed Foalle. The latter took his time before playing John clean through and in behind the visiting defence; after calmly cutting inside Hamza Bencherif, he slotted the ball between the legs of the keeper to give his side a dominant position.
Worksop were still trying to find a foothold in the game on 71 minutes when a header goalwards was nodded on to the underside of the bar by Town skipper Jeff Henderson. However, the Tigers could have been further adrift four minutes later had Johnson’s long range shot not been inches off target.
Substitute Steels saw his 87th minute shot smartly saved by Chapman before fellow sub Nic Bollado smashed the rebound off the crossbar.
With Morpeth marauding forward regularly, they wouldn’t be denied their fourth goal of the afternoon and it was special on many levels.
Steels set up Dowling to lash across the keeper and into the far corner in stoppage time, a first goal for the midfielder in Highwaymen colours and another milestone in an impressive spell with the club to date since breaking into the first team.
Town are next in action when travelling to Whitby Town on Tuesday night (7.45pm). Highwaymen Radio, sponsored by MJ Sport, will be broadcasting from 7.40pm.
MORPETH TOWN: Lowson, Wombwell, Robson, Dowling, Henderson (c), King, Foalle (Steels 83’), John (Boyd 84’), Hodgson (Bollado 73’), Barlow, Johnson.
SUBS: Donaldson, Lynn.
WORKSOP TOWN: Chapman, Hutchinson, Atherton, Wedgbury (Green 65’), Bencherif (c), Taft (Daniel 83’), Hawkridge, Redford, Hall, Hughes, Rollins (Burrow 62’).
SUBS: Malkowski, Yarmenko.
ATT: 415
