Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley Bay coach Gary Somerville summed up the 2-2 draw against Whickham when he commented ” We never turned up for the first 60 - 65 minutes and gave two cheap goals away, but I’ve got to give credit to the lads for the last 20 minutes. They pulled it back at the end and had a couple of chances to win.”
Many would have anticipated a comfortable victory over the side at the foot of the table but Whickham have strengthened their squad over the last week and brought in new two new signings for this game.
They went two goals ahead, both scored from long throws into the box and it was only inside the final five minutes that Whitley got back in the game.
Referring to the long throw-ins, Gary explained “We knew a lot of teams are starting to do that now, take long throws into the box. It’s something you got to rise to but if you let your foot off the gas it can happen, you get caught out and they can score. You’ve got to be aware of the situation. I think we got caught cold a couple of times and we’ve got to deal with it.
“We said at half time that they were going to sit back on their goal lead and you could see it, but they scored again and then sat further and further back. In the end that was how we got the chances to get back in the game. And then right at the end we had a couple more chances. I thought we’d scored a winner when Mikel’s shot hit the keeper but it wasn’t our day.”
As it turned out, Whitley climbed one place to third as the the teams around them in the table were beaten.
“For the first 15 to 20 minutes we were lack-lustre and gave a lot of the ball away, but then we grew into the game for the rest of the first half. But then second half we got caught for their goal but after that I think we were on top until the end but we just couldn’t get the winner.
“With ten minutes left they (Whickham) were trying to run to the corners that’s when we piled the pressure on; they were getting further and further back. The crowd were behind us but we ran out of time unfortunately.
“We know the group of lads; they will work hard. They’ve had an off day but they’ve worked hard enough to get us a point, so I think at the end of the day it’s probably two points lost, but it’s one gained from where we were, especially with the teams losing around us.”
It took a lot of work from the ground staff to make the pitch playable after the rain and snow during the week but inevitably the surface was heavy which contributed to the number of passes that went astray. Players need to adapt to the conditions but as Gary pointed out “It can make it a leveller where sometimes you could go on a fresh pitch or 4G surface and pass round teams and be better on those sort of pitches. But we’ve just got to work hard and get through the winter and see where we are come January/February. Hopefully we’ll still be in the mix, which I believe we will be, and then kick on for the last two or three months of the season and get where we need to be in the play offs if we can.”
Jake Forster was not involved in the game but Gary explained “Jakey’s got a couple of little knocks and is a bit sore, nothing serious, but with a strong squad we thought we’d rest him today but I think other than that we’re pretty strong now.”
Updating on the progress of striker Scott McCarthy, who is recovering from surgery after long term absence due to a ACL injury, Gary told us “He’s finding it hard work to get back to where he was when he was scoring goals right, left and centre so we need to bide our time with him and hopefully he’ll get back right and when he is, he’ll be back scoring. It’s been a long time out for him.”
Gary was grateful for the support of the fans who turned out in force once again. “You cannot knock the fans, they’re always here in good numbers. They’re always pushing behind the lads. They want the club to do well and you could really hear it in those last 5-10 minutes when we scored and they pushed us on to score the second. The crowd were fantastic, they always are.”
