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Morpeth Town are on the road for the first part of an away double header over the next four days when they travel to Ashton United in the Pitching In NPL Premier Division.
Followed by a trip to Whitby Town on Tuesday night, this is sure to be an important part of the season with the Highwaymen seeking to give themselves more breathing space from the bottom four.
FORM GUIDE
Morpeth: The Highwaymen have improved form-wise of late, but faltered last time out to a well orgnaised Radcliffe side. After losing two before the draw at Matlock, they’ve beaten Gainsborough and Newcastle Benfield before defeat last time out.
Ashton: Like Morpeth, Ashton have lost three of their last five league games. Bizarre results which perhaps don’t give a gauge of the side they are, they’ve beaten play-off chasing Warrington Rylands 3-0 away but lost 6-0 and 2-1 most recently at home to Hyde United and Marske United.
LAST TIME OUT
Morpeth secured safe passage into the semi-finals of the Techflow Marine Senior Cup thanks to a 1-0 win over Newcastle Benfield. On a difficult pitch, Andrew Johnson scored the only goal of the game on five minutes, dispatching an effort after being played through on goal.
Ashton were trailing at Marine 1-0 heading into the final couple of minutes. Always a tough place to go, the visitors kept plugging away and found a late leveller through Kielen Adams in the 88th minute to rescue a share of the spoils. It leaves them 15th, and six points clear of the bottom four.
THE GAFFER
Morpeth Town boss Craig Lynch is adamant his side need to be more ruthless with their chances. After missing three glorious opportunities to score against Radcliffe in the 1-0 loss, Lynch wants his side on target this time round at Hurst Cross.
“We are into the back end of the season and we need to be taking points away from Saturday’s game to keep on the tails of the teams in the middle of the pack, with Ashton being one of them,” he said.
“If Saturday against Radcliffe was anything to go by, as we already know, we can’t give good teams hope in this league.
“We need to punish teams when we get clear chances to take the lead.”
Robins assistant manager Nigel Keogh was pleased to see his side improve in the second half at Marine and earn a share of the spoils.
“We’ve got to go a little bit bigger, a little bit uglier, win the seconds and we’ve shown we’ve got the character to come back into games late on. There’s nothing better than an equaliser late on,” he said.
“We’re now going to use these games going forward, at home especially. We’re going to go and play, work hard. Three points on the board on Saturday (against Morpeth) would be a good week.”
CAN’T MAKE THE GAME?
Highwaymen Radio – sponsored by Allery Chemistry – will be broadcasting live from 2.55pm on match day, with Twitter updates throughout.
Make sure to tune in for free on your phone or computer by clicking here.
