Whitley Bay manager Jay Bates echoed the feelings of the fans who had travelled to Penrith on Saturday when he said it felt like an end of season game with a lack of heart and desire from the players.
“Yes we created chances but it just wasn’t good enough on the field. We started off brightly, got into good areas but the delivery wasn’t good enough, we weren’t taking chances. It was poor, especially with the (4G) surface. We’ve been crying out for a good surface especially after the winter and the way pitches have been. There was no excuse. Penrith played the surface better than us and I’ve got no qualms about the result. It was a disappointing performance and the lads know that and next week against North Shields we cannot put a performance in like that. We had stern talks after the game and there’ll be a definite change next week.”
Whitley were without striker Mackenzie Sharpe, whose season is now over due to suspension, and his absence made a difference. “Mackenzie may not score a lot of goals but what he does for the team is different, he holds up play he brings players into play he does do a lot of work off the ball as well and he gets himself in good positions to create them opportunities but he’s a miss but it is what it is.” Alfa Djalo took his place but it didn’t work out well for him, but as Jay pointed out “People are missing at this late stage in the season and you’ve got to adapt and give other people opportunities to take their chances and the lads didn’t take their chances today unfortunately.”
As had been the tactic earlier in the season, the versatile Jake Forster was moved up front but was unable to change the course of the game. “Jake put one header past the post, he got past a couple of lads and the ball ran away from him and went through to the keeper. He brought players into play so when we did put it up there we looked a different team. The subs made an impact; Thomas has done well when he’s come on, he gave that bit of energy and turned a couple of men, Kyle again put some good balls into the box when he came on but overall it was a disappointing performance.
“That surface should suit the way we play our football but the lads just know they didn’t turn up today and it’s been like that a lot of the season. I said they’ve got to go away and look at themselves and decide what they want to do because they’re playing for the Whitley Bay shirt for next season and for me there’s probably only about two players who could come off the pitch today and say they’d done well.”
