Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley upset title chasing Shildon on Saturday with a very impressive 3-0 victory that ended a 13 match unbeaten run by the Railwaymen but Bay manager Jay Bates felt that it was a performance and result that had been coming.
“We knew Shildon was going to be a tough task. After the Redcar game I said judge us after the Shildon game. We had quite a few postponed games last month and the disappointment at Boldon. But the last couple of games I think the lads have looked fitter and sharper. Today they looked hungry out there. Maybe 3-0 might be flattering in some eyes but in the end it could have been 5 or 6 considering the chances that we created. We overran them in the last 25 minutes so yes, I was very pleased. Cal Larmouth has picked up the man of the match but I think to a man, every one of them out there was outstanding this afternoon.
“Just before the game we had an unfortunate injury to Joe Robson who’s been fantastic since he’s come back from injury, so we had to move it around and Parky’s not played a lot of games so we made Josh (Stewart) slot in at centre half. He doesn’t look out of position anywhere you put Josh, and Parky has come in and given us a good 65 minutes and has been one of the star performers as well for not having much game time. But you look across the back four, all four were very good and in midfield you’ve got Jakey, Meeshi, Cal and every one of them covered every blade of grass today. We won everything and I’m not just pointing out them. From a forward point of view as well, Alfa was really aggressive, he held it up well he made life a misery for the two defenders. He won the penalty and he got his goal as well for putting a bit of pressure on the goalkeeper there. And you look at Lucas, he’s come in and when he’s in the team he gives that bit of edge and it’s the same with Kyle, he’s getting a little bit sharper now and he’s performing and the same for the subs that have come on.”
Jay revealed that one of the messages ahead of the game was about discipline and giving away ‘silly fouls’. “It’s discipline where we’ve let ourselves down over the past few weeks so they’ve been told if they get carded it’s their responsibility and they let the team down and themselves obviously.
“Meeshi I thought was fantastic. If I was going to pick a man of the match, for me personally he covered every bit of grass and he dealt with situations where you think they’re going to get a goal or put a bit of pressure on the goalkeeper and Meeshi’s last ditch tackles have prevented that.
“We discussed with Dan Gladstone at half time that he can come off his line a bit more and take the pressure off from the corners. First half there were three in quick succession when Dan could maybe have come and claimed at least one but in the second half his handling was very good. He came off the line and he did everything right to be fair, his kicking was a lot better. I singled out at half time one opportunity that we did give them was from a kick from Dan and that put us under a little bit of pressure, but second half he was fantastic.
“The pitches are not the very best at this time of the year but we played some lovely football out there today and you can see what we’re trying to implement throughout the team attacking and going forward. Yes, today was excellent but I think it was just going to happen and it did happen today and unfortunately for Shildon, they got it, that’s the way I look at it.
“Shildon are a footballing team so you exploit the gaps when they push lads forwards to try and get to their two up top, basically they had four up top today so you can create a lot of space. You’ve seen the desire, the heart and the hunger in the lads to win second balls and it’s all paid off today.
“It was fantastic but one game’s one game and you’ve got to move onto the next game now and we’ll look forward to West Allotment hosting us on Tuesday and hopefully continuing that run and judge ourselves again after that.”
