Whitley began their pre-season fixtures with a coach trip to the north Lincolnshire coast where they faced Northern Premier League East Division Play Off semi finalists Cleethorpes Town. Despite being without several of their new signings, this was a valuable work out for Nick Gray's side with a number of triallists being given their chance to impress.
The hosts immediately went on the attack and caught Whitley cold when the ball was crossed from the right and poked home by Dec Howe inside the first minute. Settling into the game, Whitley created a couple of chances but a defensive error just before the half hour gave Cleethorpes the opportunity to double their lead and Howe took his chance well with a shot across Lister into the far corner.
Both sides made changes at the interval but chances on target were at a premium, Lister making a couple of good saves while in the closing stages Shanks fired wide from the edge of the box.
WHITLEY BAY: Lister, Triallist, Watson, Richardson, Triallist, Triallist, Triallist, Neary, Triallist, Triallist, Cresdee Subs: Shanks, Havelock-Brown, Senior, Triallist, Triallist, Triallist
Attendance: 250
A full set of match photos is available on our Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcqweb/albums/72177720300276369
Whitley's next friendly against Shildon on Tuesday, which was originally scheduled to be played at Hillheads, has been switched to Dean Street with kick off at 7.30pm.
As predicted, a number of changes have been made to the Northern League fixture list published last week. Whitley's games against Carlisle City and Sunderland RCA have been rearranged and the updated fixture list can be seen via this link https://whitleybayfc.com/fixtures/
