Report by Julian Tyley
Looking back at Whitley’s 2-0 defeat by league leaders Guisborough Town, Bay manager Jay Bates highlighted the importance of capitalising on goalscoring chances which the visitors did to great effect. The Priorymen extended their long unbeaten run and showed just why they are top of the table. He also explained how the players have been keeping fit during the three week weather-enforced gap in games
“Guisborough might say it was a great 2-0 win for them which it probably is. Goals change games and that’s why they’re top of the league, scoring goals and defending really well. We had a couple of opportunities first half. They’ve had two; scored one and Mauro’s made a great save, but their keeper’s made a great save as well and we’ve missed a sitter, no doubt about that. Their player’s pulled his hamstring, has stretched it to block one of Jakey Forster’s shots. You take one of them chances and you go in at half time 1-1 and it’s a different game.
“In the second half, to be honest it was a battle out there for both teams with not much happening on the heavy pitch. They (Guisborough) never really created anything then they’ve had a shot from 20 yards and I think it’s deflected past Mauro into the centre of the goal so that was it, a good win for Guisborough.
“I think teams know when they come to Whitley Bay it’s going to be a tough ask to take three points. At the end you could see the emotion from them sitting top of the league and it’s a great win for them.”
Guisborough have the best defensive record in the league, conceding less than a goal a game, Jay added “They’re the lowest conceders and you can see why. They’ve recruited well, they’ve just got another defender, Fielding, in this week. He’s come on and he just stepped in perfectly from Crook where he was their captain. They can got out there and buy people, they’ve got the resources, they’ve put money into it so they should be up there around the top.”
In the closing stages of the game, Whitley made a raft of substitutions which Jay explained were nothing to do with any injuries. “There were no injuries. After the second goal we just moved players around to give them a bit of a rest before Tuesday. Their fitness levels are there but the pitch was heavy so we just took the precaution and took some lads off for a rest.
“You could see the lads were fit; they’d been missing three weeks of football but they’ve trained well. We’ve trained every Tuesday, done a running session or a spinning or hit session, and every Thursday we’ve been on a 4G pitch to work on shape. Also on the Saturday when games were called off we managed to get on a 8 a side pitch and get some fitness in, so now we just need to get scoring goals again. We look at the last couple of games we’ve not scored a goal but hopefully we can start scoring again on Tuesday against Marske and then go on another run.”
