RED-HOT HEED ARE ON A ROLL ROMING BIRD

Willo's wonders upping the ante

- Mark Carruthers

TRADITIONALLY, life has been a rollercoaster at the International Stadium for as long as the fans can remember but far there's more thrills than spills to Mike Williamson's Gateshead these days.

Tuesday night's impressive 4-0 win at Oxford City extended the Heed's unbeaten run to seven matches in which time they have scored a whopping 19 goals.

The stats all stack up to a much-improved season from Williamson's men, who spent the vast majority of the first half of last season sat in the National League relegation zone before a much imporoved second half led them to a mid-table finish.

As it stood ahead of Saturday's visit to fellow in-form side Bromley, Gateshead were the joint top goalscorers in the top five leagues of English football with 31 goals to their name from 12 games and boasted the best goal difference in the National League after shipping just 13.

Five clean sheets from their last seven games confirmed they had learnt lessons from a nightmare defensive display in a 3-1 home defeat against Woking last month - the last black mark on their impressive recent record.