Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley Bay were made to work extremely hard for their 3-2 victory at Carlisle City on Friday night as manager Jay Bates readily acknowledged when he spoke shortly after the game. “It was tough. We came up with a game plan and it went out of the window in the first five minutes. We thought they were going to be playing with a 3-5-2 and they changed it and went 4-3-3, quite attacking. They had high energy levels. You could see it from minute one the way they pressed the ball, and pressed us obviously; but to come away to Carlisle on a Friday night and take three points is the main thing and that’s what we did.
It was an action packed game with chances coming at both ends, great entertainment for the fans. “It was, Mikel’s scrambled two off the line, Mauro’s made a couple of saves, we’ve had one cleared off the line where Kieren’s gone round the keeper and the kid’s got back to clear it, and the keeper’s made a great save off Kieren as well when it was going into the bottom corner. So we’ve both had a lot of chances throughout the game and it’s always nice when you get a 92nd minute free kick and Cal Larmouth’s behind it and he puts one in that I don’t think two keepers would have saved!”
“We’re marked by teams now; we’re sitting top of the league and we’re sitting comfortable. I think that’s eight games in a row that we’ve won, so teams are going to want to beat us because they’re going to want to be the first team that’s beaten Whitley Bay in the League. So yes, they’re going to be really up for it and you’ve seen it today from them. They played really well to be honest. They’ve come up with a game plan and they’ve executed it until we had our 92nd minute winner.
“It’s a decent performance because we took the three points and I think the rest (no midweek game last week) has done them a little bit of good. Some players have come back. We’ve managed to get a couple back out there tonight, Jakey Forster and Jack Errington.
“I think it shows character coming back again when they scored their second goal, to go on and push that ball in when they did, so give the lads credit tonight, they showed great character and determination. Our energy levels were there until the 95th minute of the game.
“It’s a nice position to be in and long may it continue.
“I think the next three games are crucial to determine our season. We’ve got Shildon on Saturday, then we go away to Guisborough in midweek then we’ve got the Vase against Knaresborough so it’ll be a good week of football and hopefully we’ll keep on with our run.”
