Highwaymen come home with three more points
MORPETH Town moved level on points with leaders Ossett United after an impressive win at in-form Stamford.
The Highwaymen have four of their five league games since securing promotion from the Northern League and they have only been kept off the top of the table by the fact that Ossett have scored one more goal so far this campaign.
Nicky Gray’s side started well at the Zeeco Stadium and came close to taking the lead when Liam Henderson rose highest to meet a Ben Sayer corner, but could only send his header over the crossbar.
The sides were cancelling each other out and there wasn’t much to choose between them. However, it was Morpeth that struck first as Joe Walton slotted home a penalty on the half-hour mark after Joe Burgess had fouled David Carson in the area.
The Highwaymen held on to the lead up until half-time and would have walked out for the second half with words of caution from manager Gray still ringing in their ears.
The Morpeth boss would have expected their hosts to improve but although they had plenty of possession, they never really tested Dan Lowson in the opening stages after the restart.
The only save that the Morpeth keeper had to make was a relatively straight-forward stop from a weak header by Rob Morgan.
Morpeth doubled their lead on the hour mark thanks to a Jeff Henderson header.
The former Newcastle United Reserves captain was left unmarked at a corner and punished the home defence by smashing a loose ball into the net.
The hosts gave themselves a chance though when they halved the deficit on 67 minutes, substitute Sam Grouse heading home a rebound after Jon Challinor has struck the crossbar with a rising drive.
Ben Sayer came close to sealing the points for Morpeth when he hit the crossbar with 10 minutes left on the clock and his side survived a late scare as Challinor sent a close-range header over the bar.
The full-time whilst blew soon after afterwards and Morpeth’s impressive run of form shows no sign of ending.