Lessons to be learned from underwhelming start to pre-season for Jarrow

The Perth Green outfit were swept aside by Northern League Division One side North Shields as they claimed a 4-0 win over Bell’s side in midweek and Jarrow found things just as tough against the Robins’ North Tyneside neighbours Whitley Bay on Saturday.

The four-time FA Vase winners wasted little time in taking the lead as striker Adam Shanks’ neat turn and finish put them ahead with just a minute gone.

The narrow lead remained in place until half-time but was extended to four by the time the midway point of the second-half had passed thanks to goals from Michael Colquhoun and James Thompson and an own goal.

Jarrow rallied and gave themselves some hope thanks to an Adam Lennox brace, but Thompson’s second goal of the day killed off any chances of a comeback.

Bell reflected on a testing 90 minutes and revealed that he will take the lessons learned into the rest of pre-season and beyond.

He told The Gazette: “We want to pitch ourselves against good opposition and that is what we have done in our first two games in pre-season.

“I was disappointed with our performance in the second-half because I thought we shaded the first-half.

“I have learnt a lot about the squad and we are trying different systems, which is what you have to do in pre-season.

“We tried two, one worked well and the other one didn’t.”

If there was a positive from Saturday’s game for Bell, it was the performance of second-half substitute Adam Lennox.

The forward arrived at Jarrow from Hebburn Town Under-23s last month and Bell recently discussed how he had been impressed with his performances in training.

Lennox got a first chance to show his new manager what he could offer on matchday and found the net with two clinical finishes during an impressive second-half performance.

Bell admitted that the young forward had made a difference when he was introduced from the bench and had given him something to ponder ahead of Wednesday’s home friendly against South Shields academy.