Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley manager Jay Bates summed up the feelings of the Bay fans after seeing his side suffer a narrow defeat at the hands of their North Tyneside rivals. “It was disappointing, first half we didn’t show up but Shields did. Second half we came out a little bit better, got a goal back but we didn’t get going after the sending off and the injury delay, so it was a fair result.
“To be fair, North Shields played really well first half and deserved the win. They’re in good form and haven’t lost in a while and today were the better team.
“We didn’t show up in a derby, something that we need to look into. You look at the five losses we’ve had away from home. All have been against the other top six teams, so there’s something that we need to do, improve our away record when we’re playing against the bigger boys.”
Reacting to two key decisions during the game, Jay said about the red card for Shields’ Callum Ross, “Even their players were saying it was a high tackle, he’s gone over the top a bit and in this day and age you can’t do that.”
He continued “What I will say is, and I’ve spoken to our players and their players, and in the first half there was a blatant penalty for us that was missed and he gave Alfie a yellow card instead.
“It’s disappointing but we’ve got to move on now to Wednesday’s Senior Cup game. We need to look back at today’s game and how we’re going to beat them on Wednesday.”
