Interview by Julian Tyley
Conceding two goals in stoppage time proved decisive in their FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay as Whitley went down 3-2 after a hard fought game at Easington. It was hard to take a defeat in that manner but manager Jay Bates was quick to point out the positives for his injury stricken side.
“Yes it was tough. I thought we played really well first half. We moved the ball really well and put them under a lot of pressure. We got our deserved reward and then went 2-0 up in the second half.
“They just has fresh legs, you could see it, they changed three at half time. They were getting over ran and needed to make changes and the changes they made were at the right time, and they made another two after that.
“We’ve come down to Easington with 12 fit men and two of them were carrying injuries. You could see by the 80th minute they were tired and the game changed and the momentum changed.
“We defended really well considering we’ve had to change the defence again for the fifth game this season. We haven’t had a settled defence and you can tell because we haven’t kept a clean sheet which is something we’ve talked about before the game, and then at half time it was “keep that clean sheet”.
“Obviously it was one of them things. We just got tired, gaps started to appear and they took advantage of the gaps, fair play to Easington they move on to the next round of the FA Cup.
“We didn’t play bad, they just had more options than us. To come down here midweek with 12 men and two of them carrying injuries it’s tough. All the injuries are just mounting up and obviously we couldn’t sign a player due to the FA Cup rulings. But now our focus is the League, the FA Vase and the Senior Cup again.”
