Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley Bay assistant manager Barry Rizza was both relieved and delighted to see his side emerge victorious after playing more than half the game with ten men in very windy conditions at Easington Colliery.
Expressing his pride in their performance after a battling 2-1 win, he said it was a massive three points. “The elation in the dressing room shows the character and resilience to dig a result out with ten men for over 45 minutes.
“I thought against the wind we were superb to get to half time at 1-1 playing against that wind, and to be honest with you, with ten men and a man sent off, I genuinely felt we’d be fine with the wind behind us in the second half. We came out positively and when got a free kick on the edge of the box, Kieren’s tucked it away absolutely superbly.”
Bay fans would have been expecting Callum Larmouth to take the free kick but that was not how it turned out. “What happened was it was going to be Callum with the way the wall was set up but when the wall moved it was more the angle for Kieren and rightly so. That’s what he brings, that bit of quality. If he gets the chance he’ll take it and he certainly did, into the top corner!”
Whitley won the toss and chose to change ends as Barry explained. “We wanted to go against the wind in the first half and see where we were at half time and try and kick on in the second half. The lads played some great football against the wind in the first half. We knew it was going to be difficult so we said, keep the ball down and try and break the lines and keep it on the floor.
“Obviously the red card made it a bit difficult. Young Layton’s disappointed, he’s apologised to the lads and it’s just a bit of naivety especially when we’d warned him that was going to happen.”
On the stroke of half time, Easington equalised in somewhat fortunate circumstances. “To be fair the kid’s put an absolutely great ball in from the right across the six yard box and Josh has had to try and get something on it and unfortunately it’s gone in the back of the net.
“Once again Mauro’s pulled off two or three great saves. He’s such an important piece of the jigsaw. It’s important to have that confidence and it breeds confidence throughout the team.
“It wasn’t easy; it was backs to the wall, but we just dropped to two banks of four, changed the formation and said ‘let them come at us and see what they’ve got’.
“Like I’ve said, we know we’re going to get games like that where we have to dig really deep and it shows character and resilience. I can’t say it enough, I can’t be prouder of the lads today. It’s a great three points!”
