Lancaster City looking to get back to winning ways when they travel to Morpeth again...this time in the FA Cup

The Dolly Blues travelled to the North East looking to end a run of three consecutive defeats in the NPL Premier Division.

Having lost to Atherton Collieries and Warrington Town, City were beaten 1-0 at Basford United at the weekend.

However, they found themselves in a commanding position against struggling Morpeth, who are in the bottom reaches of the table and parted company with their manager Stephen Turnball on the eve of the fixture.

Leading 1-0 courtesy of a goal by Sam Fishburn and having seen the hosts reduced to 10 men, City inexplicably found themselves 2-1 behind and had to rely on a Paul Dawson penalty, which was initially saved before he fired home the rebound, to rescue a point.

“It’s been a tough week or two,” said Fell. “We haven’t got what we deserved.

“We should have got something out of the game against Warrington and certainly should have got something at Basford. On reflection was the result on Tuesday night a fair result? Probably!

“We have not done enough and it could have been 4-4 or 5-5 with the amount of chances each team had.

“It looked like two nervy teams out there. We should have established ourselves more in the game but we had lost three games on the bounce so I think there was a lack of confidence from both sides.”

By a quirk of the fixture list, City return to Morpeth this weekend for a FA Cup second qualifying round tie.

Fell believes the encounter will see both sides play with a little bit more freedom and the nature of Tuesday night’s game will add extra spice to this weekend.

“They are a big strong, physical team,” said Fell. “They are a team from the North East and you know what you’re going to get – industrious, hard-working.

“I would hope that we can put a little bit more quality into our play which we didn’t do on Tuesday in the second half.

“I think it will be a good game. I don’t know about them but I think our team will look pretty different.

“We will dust ourselves off and have a pretty good go at in the FA Cup.

“We want to progress and if that means bring them back for a reply at Giant Axe the following Tuesday, then I am sure we will.”

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