South Shields youngster Savage hailed after Blyth Spartans brace

Blyth Spartans manager David Stockdale praised on-loan South Shields forward Dan Savage after he scored his first senior goals in Wednesday’s 3-0 win at Stockton Town.

Along with fellow Mariners academy product Joao Gomes, Savage is currently on a season-long loan with the Northern Premier League club as the duo look to earn valuable experience and help Spartans recover from suffering relegation into non-league’s third tier.  It has been a challenging start to the new season and the Mariners youngster have already experienced a managerial exit at Croft Park after former Newcastle United winger Nolberto Solano left the club last month.

Former Fulham and Brighton goalkeeper Stockdale was made permanent manager after a short stint in interim charge and he has overseen consecutive league wins over the last week.  A Billy Gordon goal was enough to give Spartans their first league win of the season against Workington last week before Savage grabbed his first senior goals with a brace in Wednesday night’s win at Stockton Town.

Savage, who has also featured for the likes of Hebburn Town and Boldon CA over the last year, was praised by the new Spartans boss after the game as Stockdale revealed he substituted the youngster and denied him the opportunity to claim a hat-trick to ensure he was fit and ready for Saturday’s trip to Mickleover.

He told BSAFCTV: “He absolutely deserved it all.  He ran around like a lunatic at Workington for me, it was exactly what I wanted.  I said I need the pace and energy tonight as well and when he got the first (goal), he just looked over at me and smiled.  I said just keep going, he scored again and I said to come off because I don’t want you getting too excited.  We have to look at it and I wasn’t going to make too many subs because we looked really solid - but we have a game in three days and we have got to look at that.”