Northern League: Hotchkiss wants ruthless Easington Colliery as Blue Star lie in wait

Easington Colliery manager Olly Hotchkiss wants his players to show their ruthless side as they prepare to visit Newcastle Blue Star on Friday night.

The Colliers will travel to Tyneside looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat after their 5-0 hammering at the hands of Birtley Town was followed by a deeply disappointing home loss against Marske United. Despite that setback, Hotchkiss has insisted he is not paying too much attention to the latter of those losses - but did stress the need for his players to improve in one key area if they are to continue their push for promotion.

He told The Echo: “We deserved to lose at Birtley - but at Marske, I’m not too sure. It was just two errors that can’t help you win a game so I’m not reading too much into that. But it did show that one thing we have to improve is making sure when we are dominant in a game that we are doing what we need to do to win a game. If we want to be serious, we need to be getting those three points.”

Despite that double defeat, the Colliers head into Friday night’s game on the back of a positive after they produced a stunning performance to claim a Durham Challenge Cup win against Northern Premier League club Stockton Town.

Hotchkiss was delighted with the win and revealed it was ‘even more pleasing’ because it was earned with a seriously depleted squad.

“Tuesday night was incredible and it wasn’t like we pinched it. We deserved it and it was probably our performance of the season in terms of the levels we hit. That’s pleasing coming on the back of two league defeats and the fact we had a depleted squad makes it even more pleasing.”

Fixtures

Friday: Newcastle Blue Star v Easington Colliery Saturday: Horden CW v Whitley Bay, Marske United v Crook Town, Newcastle Benfield v Bishop Auckland, Newton Aycliffe v Kendal Town, Penrith v Yarm & Eaglescliffe, Redcar Town v Whickham, Shildon v North Shields, Thornaby v Northallerton Town, Birtley Town v Blyth Town