Whitley’s 2-1 FA Cup victory over Garforth Town delighted assistant manager Liam McIvor and was obviously a great way to bounce back from the disappointing midweek defeat.
Summing it up, he said “A brilliant win, brilliant for everyone, the players, the staff and the fans. We’re through to the next round and there’s a little bit of money for the club and that’s what it’s all about. We’d like a little cup run in the FA Cup so this puts us in the next round against Whickham away in two weeks, which will be a hard game.”
Liam knew it would be a tough game against Garforth “They were a good side, they caused some problems in the first half but I thought second half we defended well as a team . We had to do a lot of hard running, that’s why we do a hard pre season. It showed there, the defending in the second half was absolutely tremendous.”
Dan Lister was voted man of the match and the assistant manager acknowledged his performance. ”Yes, Dan’s made a couple of good saves, he was good today. In fact I thought they’ve all done well; the whole back four, Scotty, young Evan coming in again, inexperienced, he should have been playing for Newbiggin today but he chose to come here. There was good running from the midfielders. The midfield were good with the ball especially, and I thought the front three were a handful at times.”
Reflecting on the two goals inside a minute that set Whitley on their way he commented “The first was a bit of a scramble but the second was a well worked goal, great goal, great finish.”
Garforth stayed in the game thanks to a goal five minutes before half time. “It was a good finish but on another day that would have been well defended and probably put in the stand, but we learn from that. But it was a great finish, how he lobbed Dan. I can’t take it away from him. But I’m over the moon with the lads today.”
Whitley now face Whickham at home in the league on Saturday, then travel to The Glebe the following weekend for the FA Cup Preliminary Round tie. “We’ll get to know each other well over the next couple of weeks” he added. “We’ll look forward to it. We’re getting players back all the time which is better for us. We look more of a squad than a team. Cameron Brewis has come back in today, he was on the bench, he got the last five minutes. Josh Gilchrist has done the warm up and hasn’t had a reaction so we’ll address that again on Tuesday. Stephen Turnbull misses Tuesday (at Sunderland RCA) but he’s back for the Whickham games.
“We’ve had a lot of rain and there’s been a lot of games off, but like I said last week, credit to the groundstaff. They work hard on it. It is cutting up already with all the rain we’ve had but we’re not on it for a week so it’ll be ready for next weekend.”
