Newark Town Blues come out victorious in the United Counties League Blue Stripe Derby over Southwell City Zebras in Nottinghamshire

Newark Town came up victorious for the fourth Blue Stripe Derby in a row against Southwell City as the two teams faced each other as part of a United Counties League Easter Monday ground hop day.

The Blues defeated the Zebras 3-0 in front of 352 in the Division One match at Brinkley.

Food and entertainment including a football dartboard were on offer in the second match of the day with many spectators joining from the Newark and Sherwood United fixture against Lincoln United.

A beautiful afternoon greeted the 4pm kick-off on a muddy pitch as the Zebras took to the field on a pitch that was still quite muddy in places.

A loud and proud contingent of Blues supporters added to the atmosphere in what was an entertaining derby for spectators.

It wasn't to be Southwell’s day who last won the Blue Stripe rivalry in September 2022.

Sean Devlin opened the scoring in the 34th minute after Southwell goalkeeper Richard Walton initially stopped a challenge from Newark captain Lewis Chambers.

The Blues went into the break up by a single goal.

Southwell had their chances in the first-half and the game was tight in the first 45 minutes.

The second-half saw the Newark attack intensify as Luke Parsons’ men pushed for more goals.

Early after the commencement of the second-half, Alex Hales set up Ryan Smith nicely for the Blues’ second goal of the day.

Devlin scored his brace in the 59th minute and the match finished with Newark home by three.

“We were regretful not to be up at the break, but second half was miles off the pace,” said a spokesman from Southwell City.

“Newark deservedly win and it’s a learning curve for some of the young lads in the side.”

Newark Town currently sit in third place of the Division One table, two points above Harrowby United who have a game in hand.

Southwell City are firmly in mid-table as they sit in 15th position out of 22 teams.