Saturday see’s Spartans look to bounce back from that shocker on Tuesday night, as we visit Northern League champions Newton Aycliffe for the first time in years.
Entry is £9 for adults, £6 for over 65’s and £3 for under 18’s.
They seem to be charging full price for all of their pre-season games, which is a bit shit of them. Can bar is only open from 2pm, but a Sports Club which houses the cricket club and rugby club is open (I think?) and it’s the only place near the ground you’ll get parked. Some good news, cans are only £2.50 at the ground.
As for Newton Aycliffe, I honestly could not tell you a fucking thing about their team at the moment. They haven’t posted a proper retained list anywhere, and haven’t mentioned a single player across social media or the website this summer. Obviously as champions of the Northern League they’ll have something about them but fuck me, their media set up leaves a lot to be desired.
They’ve played a fair few pre-season friendlies, all against National League North opposition. So far they’ve lost 2-0 to South Shields, 6-0 to Darlington and most recently 5-0 to Spennymoor, all at home.
Hopefully we’ll see a near first team XI start and feature for most of Saturday’s game. I’d expect a lot of the trialists from Tuesday’s embarrassing display at Town will be gone. It’s possible we may see some new trialists in, lads who’ve been at the likes of Gateshead and Hartlepool etc who’ve haven’t made the grade for them.
While performances are always a lot more important than results, ideally we need an impressive result to help reassure supporters. More importantly though, we need an impressive and committed performance to wash Tuesday night from the minds.