When the joys of British weather and non-league football combine, it usually makes for interesting results. Sometimes it leads to no result at all and for Newcastle Blue Star, they unfortunately found that on Wednesday night.
With their trip to Crook Town being submerged in a thick layer of fog, there were always going to be doubts as to whether they game would go ahead or not. However, a referee’s inspection an hour before passed the conditions to be playable.
Great news for those Blue Star fans in attendance, even better news by the time goals from Sean Reid and Paul Dudgeon had put the visitors two goals clear – then again, the conditions on the field were far from clear.
As the clock turned just short of an hour, the referee decided a 15-minute hiatus was required in order to see if the conditions would clear. That in itself is never a good sign, it is even worse when the game is subsequently abandoned.
All the miles clocked up for nothing, all the effort wiped out and not only was there the obvious frustration of having a win chalked off, further progress up the league table had also been expunged from the records.
Had Blue Star held out and the weather held up, it would have meant that Marc Nash’s men would move up to fourth place in the Northern League Division One table but because there was no addition to the points column in midweek, it means they start the weekend in ninth.
Just outside the promotion chasing pack at present but at the same time Nash and his players know they can move up the ladder rather quickly – especially now that they still have a game in hand at least over the top eight.
Saturday sees them required to set the alarm clocks at an earlier time than usual and with an 11:00am kickoff scheduled for their relatively short trip to Whickham, the plan will be to get maximum points before the Toon are in action four hours later.
Something which sets up this clash rather nicely indeed. A big thanks to Whickham for the upcoming hospitality and for those attending from an away perspective, safe travels both there and back.
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