Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley kept their play-off hopes very much alive with an impressive 3-1 victory at Horden on a bitterly cold February night. An excellent playing surface produced a thoroughly entertaining contest leaving Bay manager Jay Bates very happy especially with the first half performance, when all the goals were scored.
“First half was very good; second half died off. Their legs started to get tired and you could see that after a heavy game on Saturday then travelling down here after work on a Tuesday night.
“We changed the formation a little bit today from Saturday. We tried to get the ball into feet and get playing off two forward men and you could see it worked. We had a few balls around the corner, the movement was a lot quicker, the passing was a lot quicker going forward and we got a lot more balls in the box and the keeper’s made three fantastic saves in the first half. Meeshi’s hit the bar as well so we could have gone in with a lot more at half time and comfortable.
The message at half time was to hold on to what we’d got, don’t concede. The main thing I said to them was ‘go out and enjoy it. When you’re 3-1 up you should be enjoying football’. You could see it was just tired legs and it wasn’t great to watch second half.
“The second half was always going to be like that when they’d played so well first half. It was just about not conceding second half, that was basically it, which we’ve done well.
“Going forward they (Horden) gambled quite a bit, which left them one v one at the back. There was a little bit of pressure second half, but I thought the defenders and the goalkeeper dealt with it and we got in a couple of times on the counter attack and their keeper’s man of the match with some fantastic saves, but we won 3-1 so it tells you everything.
“That’s what we’ve come down for, a win and a big three points and it keeps us in the playoffs.”
