Report by Julian Tyley
It was no surprise that the Bay players and management team were wearing broad smiles as they emerged from the dressing rooms after last night’s hard fought but fully deserved 2-1 victory over neighbours and closest rivals North Shields. It was a performance that helped erase the memories of Saturday’s very disappointing defeat in the league fixture at North Shields and saw Whitley through to the semi-final of the Northumberland Senior Cup.
As assistant manager Barry Rizza commented after the game “It’s always good to put the wrongs right so quickly. Like we said to the lads before the game, good teams don’t lose two in a row. It was good performance, backs to the wall at times but you could see the difference in how hard every man worked from minute one to the last minute.”
Whitley could hardly have made a better start, going ahead with less than six minutes on the clock thanks to a stunning goal from Mikel Thompson. Barry described the goal as “superb, that’s what Mikel does. He’s a throwback who plays between the lines. He’ll lose balls in areas at times but you can’t take that away from him because what he gives you in the final third, there’s not many players in this league who play the way he does.”
Barry felt both Bay goals were special. “The keeper couldn’t do anything for either of the goals, fair play to him. Jay actually said before the game we only score ‘worldies’ and there were two of them out there tonight!
Mechack Kanda got the second goal as the game was entering stoppage time and his was a performance that drew praise from the management team “Meeshi’s an 8, 9 or 10 every week. He’s the most honest lad you’ll ever see. He’s a workhorse. He’s box to box. There’s one thing you can say he lacks maybe a bit is goals but when you need him, he’s there.”
Why was there such a contrast in the team’s performance in just four days? Barry gave his thoughts. “I think again, we’re at home with our fans which shouldn’t really make a difference because there were a lot of fans there on Saturday. I just think they wanted to put the wrongs right from Saturday.
“We ‘ve had chances, they’ve had chances, Josh has put one over, Erra (Jack Errington) could have got one sneaking in at the back post but to be fair to them, Mauro’s pulled off one, I don’t know how he’s kept it out; and the two tackles after Mauro’s saved it were unbelievable as well, but that’s just the desire that was there. We rode our luck at times; they created quite a bit especially the first half but that’s football, isn’t it, swings and roundabouts.
“It was a superb atmosphere. You could sense the fans enjoyed it, to get 800 in midweek is good to see.”
Looking ahead, Whitley will travel to Newcastle Benfield in the semi-final which has been confirmed for Tuesday 21st April. Warning against any complacency Barry said “You know what you’re going to get from Benfield, I can tell you now, I think the league table’s a bit deceiving because they’re hard to beat especially at home on their pitch.”
