Speaking of last night's draw and Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Guisborough Town, Paul says: "Two competitive games in and I am really pleased with the effort and commitment shown by the squad, I think we deserved more than a point from the Guisborough Town game and last night against Newcastle Blue Star felt a draw was a fair result.

Blue Star started well and put us under extreme pressure for the first 20 minutes. After that I thought we settled and started to create a few half chances, and the second half was a proper Northern League encounter with both teams competing on a difficult pitch.

Blue Star took the lead after about 25 minutes with a great strike from a well-worked corner, and to be honest, up to that point in the half I didn't think they had really caused us any problems defensively.

All credit to the team who didn't let their heads drop, they showed real character and determination to make sure we stayed in the game and got a deserved equaliser through Euan McBride, we could've even gone on to win the game but from a great save from their keeper late into stoppage time.

After working with the squad for a few weeks now my overall thoughts are that we have a really honest bunch of players who have shown they have the fight we will need going forward in the remaining games, and I honestly feel that will take us a long way."

We're back in action at home at The John Keegan Stadium this Saturday for our 2nd game in a double home week as we take on Whickham in a pivotal match.

Come down and support the team as we look to put 3 points on the board!

UTM