Interview by Julian Tyley
For yet another season, Whitley have made an early exit from the FA Vase, a competition they once dominated. The 2-1 home defeat by Second Division Darlington Town was clearly one of the shock results of the round. In each of the previous four seasons, they went out on penalties but this time a late goal by a former Bay player Nathan Stephenson decided the outcome.
Echoing the feelings of the fans, manager Jay Bates summed up his team’s performance as “ Very disappointing”.
During the week, there was considerable attention given by supporters to the return of goalkeeper Mauro Asikaogu, one of last season’s outstanding players, but recognising what can sometimes happen in such situations Jay said “ I think we called it before the game. What’s the chances of Mauro coming in and making a mistake straightaway.. and unfortunately that’s what happened within three minutes. But we’re not blaming that situation on the result, it just wasn’t good enough all round.
“We spoke at half time about heart and desire, but it shouldn’t take to half time to start playing. But even then after we scored, another 15 minutes and we started to tire again. We keep mentioning injuries. Kieren (Aplin)‘s out for the season with a knee injury and Mikel’s going to be out for a while. Then we’ve got four lads who’ve just come in and are all cup tied, it’s just one of those things.
“We’ve elaborated a lot about heart and desire, we had words with the lads there and there’ll be changes this week for definite because there are players not showing the heart and desire that they should be for this football club
“They (Darlington) wanted it more and at times they bullied some of the players.”
One of the players who impressed the manager was midfielder Luca Shilling. “I feel sorry for Luca. I said to him after the game he’s doing two or three men’s running and he can’t keep doing it. You can’t keep relying on Luca and the likes of Liam (Heywood) when he’s available, and Jakey Forster when he’s back fit doing the running for these ball players. They’ve got to doit themselves.”
Teenage defender Spencer Ashcroft, on dual registration with Blyth Spartans, was another who caught the eye of his manager. “Spencer had a good assist for the goal, crossing it, then Macca’s put it away, it’s what Macca does.
“Spencer’s come in and done a job for us, he has for the previous games as well. He was recalled by Blyth but for the minute he’s back with us, but it depends on Blyth’s needs.”
The four players signed recently from Whickham but were cup tied for the Darlington Town game come back into the reckoning as Jay explained. “These lads are all available for the next few games so they’ll all be coming into the squad for Friday’s game at Kendal. You can see what they’ve brought to the squad and they’ve already outperformed some of the other players, so there’ll be changes. We’re 15 games in and unfortunately some are not doing it. We don’t want to be bringing in too many players, Josh Stewart, Jakey Forster and Jake Jensen are not too far away. (from returning)
“Kieren is out for the season so is Matty Griggs who’ll need an operation so when you look at the injury list, they’re not all just niggles but long term injuries unfortunately.”
Jay also confirmed that goalkeeper Preston Leech has been recalled to Gateshead while Adam Cameron, injured in the warm up at Redcar Town will be out for 2 to 3 months with a dislocated thumb. However Brogan Colquhoun has recovered from last season’s long term injury and is currently the number two keeper
