Report by Julian Tyley
The very difficult conditions proved to be one of the main talking points after Whitley battled to a 1-0 victory at Easington Colliery on Saturday. With a near gale force wind blowing straight down the exposed Welfare Park pitch it was always going to be matter of how effectively the players adapted to the elements.
Speaking after the game Whitley Bay manager Jay Bates acknowledged the challenge that his players had faced. “Tough conditions and a tough place to come. Last week they (Easington) won 5-0 at West Allotment and they’ve been in good form. We knew what it was going to be like; they’re a battling team, they’ve got a good manager in Ollie Hotchkiss who likes to press from the front and get his team working hard. You could see that from the sidelines. It’s always good to come away and take three points.”
With the wind at their backs in the first half, just a single goal lead at the interval appeared insufficient as Jay readily agreed. “We definitely needed another, as soon as we scored the one goal, we needed to get another. I thought we can’t go in at half time with just a 1-0 advantage in this wind. Then on the stroke of half time the ref sent their keeper off, gave us a penalty and then the assistant’s over ruled him and given them a free kick. Obviously the penalty, if we’d scored it, would have taken us into half time comfortable but we still had our chances. Alfa missed from six yards out with just the goalkeeper to beat then there was another great chance in the first half to go 2-0, but at 1-0 at least it’s something to hold onto in the second half with the wind against us and the lads did really well to hold on.
“Sometimes it’s an advantage with the wind but sometimes it’s a disadvantage. You think you’ve got the ball under control. It almost forces you to go long and you overhit it and you see the ball running out of play, so sometimes it’s an advantage, sometimes a disadvantage. It’s about dealing with the conditions. I thought it wasn’t how we played, it was more the grit and desire and determination to win that game that was how we got through it. Even in the second half, breaking away I think we had another three or four chances. First half we hit the cross bar, second half we hit the cross bar and Alfa’s missed another great opportunity, Cal’s missed an opportunity as well so we did have the chances, more than them.
“I think that the chances they did have were all 25 yards out. They weren’t in close where they were asking questions of the defenders, they were from at least 25 yards so in a way it was quite comfortable for Dan. Just once in the second half the kid has caught it lovely but it was straight down the middle so it was not a problem for Dan.
“Overall I think we deserved the three points, going on the shots and chances created and the desire that we had in the second half to keep that 1-0 advantage.”
