Whickham vs West Auckland Town – Match Preview

The Lang Jacks will be hoping to bounce back from their defeat away to Consett when they return to the First Mortgage Glebe on Saturday 11th December to face high-flying West Auckland Town, writes BEN ROBINSON.

The Glebemen’s four-game winning streak was ended by league leaders Consett last week falling to a 2-1 defeat, despite Zak Atkinson netting the opener for the visitors.

Following the defeat, Tony Fawcett spoke about how his side’s performance pleased him despite the result.

He said: “Friday’s game against Consett was a good learning game for us. We played extremely well but switched off at two crucial moments.”

He continued: “Having said that, I thought we were extremely unlucky not to take anything from the game and it really shows that we are really starting to hit the standards we know the lads are capable of.”

Going into the game Fawcett’s men will be without transfer listed Mark Fitzpatrick and Michael Hoganson, this is as well as Tom Howard, Flynn Martindale and Dean Gallagher who are also unavailable going into the fixture.

West remain in second place despite a run of four defeats where they have conceded 10 goals, including a eight-goal thriller against West Allotment Celtic where they fell to a 5-3 loss.

Jordan Blinco could cause trouble to the solid Whickham backline with the forward netting his 19th and 20th goals of the season in the loss to West Allotment.

Blinco scored against the Lang Jacks in the reverse fixture when Jack Robson provided two assists to Robbie Williamson as the visitors ran away with the three points.

A victory for the home side could move them up to eighth place, whilst a West Auckland win would keep them in second place but a defeat could leave them as low as seventh with a three point gap between the yellow & blacks and Ashington.