Spennymoor Town boss Graeme Lee was left “delighted” after seeing his side kick off the new Enterprise National League North season with a 2-0 victory over Hereford.
“It’s always the unknown,” he admitted. “You work hard pre-season, but it’s that first game where you find out what you’ve got — and the lads did everything today that we wanted.”
Lee revealed his plans were thrown into disarray late on Friday night when Ollie Green suffered an injury affecting his eyesight, forcing a change in formation at the last minute, which took the hosts some time to adjust to.
“First half, you could see a little bit of frustration at times — we allowed them to come at us too much and Brad [James, goalkeeper] was probably busier than we’d have liked early on. We just didn’t get hold of the ball and make the simple passes,” he said.
Even so, Moors struck twice before the break as prolific striker Glen Taylor and defender Dan Rowe netted.
“We only made two passes for the first goal — just picking the right pass, being patient, then a great ball down the line for Glenn. Once he’s one-v-one, you get a smile on your face. Great goal, great finish.”
As for the second, a killer below before half-time, Lee said: “Dan is composed — he’d probably be a good forward if you stuck him up there. We had five powerful lads in the box, and thankfully the ball’s fallen to him. Composed, great finish.”
From there, it was about game management. “The discipline and the work effort were brilliant. Brad wasn’t too busy apart from keeping the ball in play. Very pleasing,” Lee said. “The lads have set standards now. If we show that consistency, we’ll win games.”