Report by Julian Tyley
A single goal scored just after half time by Alfie Livermore was enough to win a closely contested Northumberland Senior Cup semi final at Newcastle Benfield and earn Whitley Bay a place in the Final for the first time since 2013.
The Final will be played at St James’ Park, a prospect that Bay manager Jay Bates relishes. “St James’ Park.. I think the pitch is going to be a little bit better than here tonight! he joked, referring to the hard and uneven surface following a spell of dry weather.
“If you’d asked before the game how it would have gone, that’s exactly how it went. Whoever gets their noses in front is going to try and hold on to the lead on a pitch like that and pray that no one scores, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.
“We got the one goal. It was a tough game, their legs were tired, I’m not saying it was a great game or a classic game but the lads dug in and we took the win and that’s all that we needed to do. It’s not about what’s happened in the quarter final and semi final, now it’s what happens in the final, and we’ve got there and that’s the main thing.
“It was good to see there was a good following today and Alfie Livermore’s fan club was there, the young lads, so it was good to get the youngsters involved because that’s what you need for the football club to thrive - the younger generation coming through.”
The prospect of a night out at St James’ Park next month on Tuesday 5th May is a great one for all concerned with the club. Jay continued “It’s going to be the same for the fans as it is for the players, probably a childhood dream for some players. A few of them have been around Newcastle as juniors but never got to play at St James Park so it’ll be good. I don’t know who gets the home changing rooms but we’ll be looking forward to seeing how it’s decided and who gets those changing rooms!”
Goalkeeper Mauro Asikaogu missed his first game of the season at the weekend but was back for this semi final but as Jay pointed out “Mauro hasn’t made a save to be perfectly honest, a lot of balls into the box and a lot of calls from them for handballs, but it was another clean sheet for him. To be fair their keeper has made some saves but it was just a scrappy affair. The pitch wasn’t the very best and it was just a matter of getting through the game.
“If you look at Benfield, until the last couple of games when they’ve been resting people, they were the second lowest conceders in the league, so they don’t concede very many. They’re quite strong at the back. They try to catch you on the counter attack and they always cause problems when they go long ball into the box and direct, so our defenders have done well today.”
A crowd of almost 750 packed into Sam Smith’s Park, a large proportion of whom were Bay fans. “It tells you something when the kick off is delayed and they tell you it’s only delayed because there’s a hundred Whitley fans outside at the gate so it was a great following we had tonight!
“The lads appreciate everything and so do the management, so bring on Saturday!
As Jay said, with the first semi final of the week ticked off, attention turns to the Play-Off semi final against West Auckland on Saturday. While the game is being played at Hillheads, technically it is not a home game as Whitley are hosting the game for the Northern League, who have decided the admission arrangements.
Looking ahead to the game Jay said “We know a lot about West Auckland, we’ve played then three times and we’ve got beat three times, so they’ll be coming on Saturday looking to upset us, but Whitley will be better this time, we’ll be better on Saturday. We’re going to train on Thursday but it’s more likely to be recovery, a light session, relax the lads and we’ll go again on Saturday. And then hopefully another final to look forward to.”
