Morpeth boss: Lads did us proud in scrap of a match
HIGHWAYMEN KEEP CLEAN SHEET AFTER TWO WEEKS WITHOUT ANY TRAINING
MORPETH Town manager Stephen Turnbull revealed his pride over his side’s performance in their draw at South Shields.
The two North East rivals failed to break the deadlock in a scrappy affair with limited goalscoring opportunities at the 1st Cloud Arena.
Referee Craig Dean was the busiest man on the pitch as he booked a total of 14 players as a tempestuous game threatened to boil over.
Morpeth will undoubtedly be the happier of the two sides after they claimed a point and kept a clean sheet in their first game after a positive Covid-19 test caused them to cancel all training and matches over the last two weeks.
“I am happy with a draw under the circumstances,” explained Turnbull.
“I would have taken a draw before the game because we have come up against a good, wellorganised side. To come here, after two weeks of no training, literally nothing, I could not be any happier with the lads. I am so proud of them. We weren’t great from a footballing point of view, but in this league, you have to scrap and battle to get points and that is what we have done.” Turnbull admitted that he was embarrassed by some of the controversial challenges that took place during a keenly-contested 90 minutes on South Tyneside. Highwaymen midfielder Liam Noble invoked the wrath of the home faithful as he rolled a stray ball on to the pitch as the Mariners pushed forward in search of a goal. The former Hartlepool
United man was spoken to by Turnbull at the time and at fulltime. But the former Blyth Spartans midfielder also revealed he is happy for his side to show their nasty side – as long as they can do it in a controlled and classy way.
“There is a bit of bad blood between South Shields and Morpeth – so it seemed like a game like that was always going to happen.
“It sounds daft, but I quite like that we can be a horrible team because, as a player, I hated playing against horrible teams.
“Obviously, there was a time when the ball came on to the pitch from our bench when they were attacking, that was embarrassing, and I apologise for that.
“Win, lose or draw, whatever you do, you have to have a little bit of class. It won’t happen again, but I like that we are nasty. But you have to be nasty in the right way, taking bookings, slowing the game down, it’s part of being a clever team.”
In this league, you have to scrap and battle to get points and that is what we have done Stephen Turnbull, Morpeth Town boss