By Elliot Yates
Gloucester City travel to the North East where we will face Blyth Spartans tomorrow in an important game for both teams. Two places separate us and Saturday’s opponents in the National League North table with City in front only by a point.
The Tigers will be without Matt McClure as he is recovering from a back injury suffered in City’s previous game to Boston United, where he was substituted before half-time. Tom Harrison is also still ruled out with a foot injury.
Blyth have won two of their last three games but come into their home match on the back of a 3-2 defeat to Curzon Ashton away from home, nearly making late comeback from 3-0 down. But goals from O’Donnell in the 84th minute and Djalo in the 91st minute, proved to only be consolations. However, they’ve still managed to score nine goals in their last five matches.
The Tiger’s form sees us drawing two and winning once in the last three matches. Manager Lee Mansell wants to see his City side score more goals against a Blyth side who haven’t kept a clean sheet in their last five matches:
“I would like to add more firepower in that forward area but to do that we’re very tight on budget which would mean some would unfortunately have to leave the building. We just need to find that extra little bit, that extra 5% in terms of our play to get us back on the road again.” - Lee Mansell
A win for Gloucester City would put us up to 22 points and four points clear of our hosts going into the next home match against Southport on Saturday 22nd January at New Meadow Park.