After playing catchup these last few weeks, Blue Star now have the opportunity to set the pace in the Northern Football Alliance Premier Division and now that they are top of the table, it is not a position they are willing to give back.
Especially when you consider how they performed last weekend and with a trip to last season’s champions Killingworth serving as a potential banana skin, Brian Smith’s men kept their footing on the way to a comfortable 4-1 away win.
Three points that were just as deserved as they were earned and while the formalities of the result were being wrapped up at Amberley Park, the formbook was being volleyed out the window at Percy Main.
With Burradon & New Fordley being handed their first league defeat of the season, it means their advantage has not just been eroded but now superseded and as fate would have it, they are the team that play host to Blue Star on Saturday.
While due to a change of power at the top, it also changes the potential narrative of Saturday’s clash. What was previously a must win game for NE15’s favourites, has now become more of a do not lose.
However, such a mantra is unlikely to be circulated within the Blue Star dressing room and what better way to make a statement to the rest of the division, then by extending their gap at the top to three points.
A turn of the screw here, might make it too tight for the rest to catch them up and with a string of successive home games to still come across the autumn and winter, any advantage found now could be worth double when the clocks go back.
With all this said, Burradon & New Fordley certainly cannot be ignored or overlooked, and they have certainly been worthy of their standing at the sharper end of the table - which means they will be just as keen to return to the top this weekend.
Which sets up Saturday’s clash rather nicely indeed. A big thanks to Burradon & New Fordley for the upcoming hospitality and for those who will be attendance from an away perspective, safe travels both there and back.
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