Report by Julian Tyley
Assistant manager Barry Rizza pulled no punches when he assessed Whitley’s performance in their 4-1 defeat at Newcastle Blue Star on Friday night.
“That was a very, very bad day at the office for us as a team. We haven’t had a performance like that for a long time. The lads are aware that they can’t have performances like that.”
He said that there was a crumb of comfort in the fact that it happened away from Hillheads “because I‘d be embarrassed to play like that in front of our own fans.”
He felt players had not taken on board the message about the threats that Blue Star provided. “For their first goal they got to the by line and put a good ball into the box. We said at the start of the game Sean Reid is dangerous in the air. He scores a lot of goals from that sort of situation and he was involved in that goal and we should be dealing with it. I would say three out of the four goals we could and should have done better as a team.”
After Regan Paterson got the Bay goal, Whitley showed some improvement but as Barry added “I think we had little spells but there’s no excuses it just wasn’t right tonight and we know that as a management team and we know that as players.
“Their third goal killed us. When that went in it was a long way to come back. Normally the lads dig in but that performance from start to finish was not good enough.”
He continued “If you look at the amount of yellows including myself it’s not good enough.”
But he felt that every tackle was punished and a little bit more consistency was needed. “It didn’t seem to go both ways but that’s no excuse.”
“It’s a godsend we’ve got another game so close on Tuesday (a League Cup tie at home to Prudhoe YC Seniors) so it’s a chance we can make a right from a wrong. A couple of key players coming back from suspension will give the lads a lift.”
