A tale of two teams, as both us and Blyth Town got promoted from the same league last season, but are now having vastly different campaigns...
Having finally breached the +50 GD, the next milestone for the Steelmen is now hitting the 50 point tally, which can be done by Wednesday night.
On 45 points right now, wins against Blyth and Brighouse would get us over that line and make a great season even better.
Obviously, though, there is still a long way to go till the end of the season, and you can/should only properly start title talks in the final few weeks.
Adam Boyes still sits top of both the league’s and the step’s top scorer table, with his 21 goals meaning he is four clear of step 4’s 2nd highest goalscorer.
Bradley Fewster is also present on the leaderboard, sitting 9th for all of Step 4, and joint 2nd in the league, alongside Matlock’s Cameron Wilson.
Even though we are a game behind most of the league, we are still the country’s highest scoring side (From the Prem down to Step 6), with that +51 GD being a combination of 69 goals scored and just 18 conceded!
The end of the year will see us face 7 more teams, with only Dunston and Heaton Stannington currently sat higher than 11th. Dunston, who are currently 6th, have, at the moment, got 2 games in hand on everyone above them, bar us and Emley, and an extra 6 points could boost them up to 3rd.
That would still have them 10 points behind us, though, and as of right now, their GD is 47 less than our tally.
Blyth Town however, find themselves at the opposite end of the table, alongside the other Blyth side.
Both Town and Spartans sit rooted to the foot of the league, alongside Ashington, with all 3 having a pretty torrid time so far.
Blyth Town’s last 5 games have been heavily varied, picking up vital 1-0 wins against Grimsby Borough and Garforth Town, whilst also succumbing to a 3-1 defeat to Pontefract, a 1-0 loss to Silsden, and a 6-2 hammering to Matlock.
To be fair to Blyth Town, they have only suffered two thrashings so far this season, with the Matlock defeat being one, and a 6-1 loss to Consett being the other
Other than that, they haven’t conceded more than 3 goals in any other matches, and they have in fact scored in 6 of their last 7 games.
After they face us, Blyth then host Newton Aycliffe in a match that will be their 3rd encounter this season!
Their other 2 matches against them saw Newton Aycliffe win 3-0 at home in the FA Trophy, before Blyth came back to the Ashcourt a week later and ended up winning 1-0.
There isn’t a reason for me to be mentioning this, other than I find that really fascinating. I mean, how often does a side have two away games to the same side, 2 weeks in a row?
Founded 2 years after us, Blyth Town came up to the NPL East with us, as they won the play-offs, beating Newcastle Blue Star on penalties in a match that I actually attended.
That promotion followed a prior one, as in the 2023-24 season Blyth Town got promoted from Division Two to Division One, marking a truly remarkable few years for the side.
A sense of irony feels in play, considering that the 2 Blyth teams had vastly different runs of form that saw one rise and the other fall, but both end up being grouped at the foot of this league.
Overall though, the hope is just to get another three points, especially as there’s never an easy game at this level.
Hopefully, I will see you in Blyth, but if you aren’t able to make it, then there will be live updates on our Twitter/X page.
Take care, and up the Steelmen!
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Heaton Stannington (A) – Match Preview
On the road again, and for the first time since the Blyth trip we are heading north as we take on Heaton Stannington
Match Report: Redcar Athletic 2-2 Consett AFC
Our first draw of the league campaign had to come at some point, and it was now as we let a 2-0 lead slip against Consett
Consett AFC (H) – Match Preview
Steelmen vs Steelmen for the 2nd time this season, with Consett coming to the Hollou for what is just our second match of the month
