Hebburn Town boss hails squad strength after pre-season draw with Morpeth Town

Former Dunston UTS striker Cedwyn Scott continued his pre-lockdown form by grabbing two goals for the Hornets against a Morpeth side playing their first pre-season fixture.

It was the visitors that took the lead at the newly named Green Energy Sports Ground when Jack Foalle made the most of some sloppy defensive play just before the half-hour mark.

But a cool and calm finish from Scott levelled things up just three minutes later and the striker doubled his tally to put his side ahead on the hour with another clinical finish.

However, the spoils were shared when Highwaymen substitute Joe Walton grabbed an equaliser 12 minutes from time.

Bolam was without a number of key players for the game – but he praised his side for their performance and admitted that he faces a number of headaches throughout the season.

He told The Gazette: “When you look at the squad tonight, you can see we were without Michael Richardson, Graeme Armstrong, Mark Foden and Damen Mullen weren’t playing.

“The squad is going to be massive for us this season because we will have a lot of games to cram in throughout the season.

“If we haven’t got headaches when it comes to team selection, something isn’t right, and we will get found out if we get injuries and suspensions.

“We have strength in depth now and we will use the squad in the right way throughout the season.”

It wasn’t all positive for Bolam as Hornets captain Louis Storey was shown a red card with 65 minutes gones.

The former South Shields defender was shown a second yellow card for a mistimed challenge after referee Darren Williams consulted with his assistant.

Bolam discussed the situation with the officials after the game and accepted their decision – but insisted that a different course of action could have been taken in a friendly fixture.

“I had a really good conversation with the referee after the game and I can absolutely see the point he has made.

“Louis even admitted that he should have been sent-off for the two yellows.

“But I just think from our point of view, and from Morpeth’s point of view with it being their first friendly, just come over and ask us to take him off and keep it eleven against eleven.

“We had to deal with playing against a strong eleven for over 20 minutes and it’s probably added a little bit of a cherry on the cake for us because we held out to get a draw against them.”