Allanson pleased as Town bounce back, despite Birch exit

With a number of players unavailable, Town’s preparations were hampered further when it emerged that midfielder Eddy Birch was leaving, a month after signing up for his second spell with the Seasiders.

Birch is expected to join Bridlington’s tenants Scarborough Athletic, but his departure did not affect Town as they saw off the South yorkshire strugglers, thanks to goals from Andy Norfolk and Joel Sutton.

Allanson said: “It was a hard fought win, as was expected. Armthorpe have brought some new players in recently and had won their last two games, and they are fighting for their lives to stay in this league so we knew it was going to be difficult.

“On top of this we had Danny Brunton and Will Waudby out injured, Ryan Nicholls was unavailable and Eddy Birch has moved on again to his fifth club this season. Tom Fleming and Andy Norfolk were not 100% so, putting it all into context, it was a very good win.

“We were still reeling after the demoralising defeat against Tadcaster and we didn’t know how we would react, but we talked to the players before the game and said we needed to be more on the front foot and start creating more chances and keep the ball better.

“We managed 19 shots on goal, with 15 on target, so if we are being ultra-critical we should have scored more goals but their goalkeeper made four or five excellent saves.

“It was good to get another clean sheet, but they didn’t really bother us, and it was good to get back on the winning trail again and keep pushing the teams around us. We want to finish as high as possible and we are now 15 games with only one defeat.”

Town now play matches in three different competitions over the next week, starting with a trip to Westella VIP on Wednesday.

“We have a really big month ahead of us with the East Riding Cup quarter final against Westella this week, two difficult games against Brigg in the league and the League Cup and again they are fighting for their lives,” said Allanson.

“We finish the month with an away trip to Worksop who are still pushing for promotion.”

Despite the disappointment of losing Birch just weeks after bringing him back to Queensgate, the Brid boos will not be looking for a new signing to replace him.

“After what has happened last week with players moving on, we will not be bringing any more players in,” he added. “We will stick with the squad that we have because we can trust them and they are honest and genuine lads and we know we will get 100% from them.”