Report by Julian Tyley
A 2-1 victory over top six rivals Easington Colliery left Bay manager Jay Bates a happy man, especially when results from other games came through and Whitley leap-frogged fellow play off contenders Kendal to climb into third place.
“Yes, very pleased against a good physical team. You look at their last few results and I think they’ve won five out of their last six and we’ve won two in the last eight at home, so coming into it the form was for them so we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
Both of Whitley’s goals came in the last few minutes of the first half from Jack Errington and Mikel Thompson, and as Jay said “They were two good but different finishes. They’re two good lads who I’ve had around for a lot of years, Mikel and Erra, so it’s nice for them. It was a header by Erra. He’s scored a couple this season, then Mikel’s little bit of brilliance around the corner into the front man and off him. I thought he was down on the ground to be fair at one point but he just managed to keep on his feet and slot it past the keeper.
“But we missed a couple of good chances in the first half and I thought there was a stonewall penalty so we could have been in a healthier position. Second half, we just wanted to control that half. We knew that they were going to come out, put the physical side on us, like what happened when Layton got sent off against them earlier in the season, so we knew what to expect second half. I think we controlled it until the last five to ten minutes when they got the goal. It could have been more comfortable. Nathan’s gone through one on one with the keeper and his shot has hit the keeper’s legs.
“They were always going to put a bit of pressure on in the last five. They put the big centre half up front and just went very direct and long. They got a goal off a set piece and we had to hold on and do the physical side of things, win aerial battles and just try and catch them on the counter attack which we’ve done.”
Late goals elsewhere favoured Whitley with Kendal and Boro Rangers both beaten in stoppage time. Jay commented “This league is difficult, anyone can win against anyone on their day, it’s so competitive. Kendal were ahead and they’ve got beat 2-1 and North Shields beat Boro Rangers in the last minute.
“I know the top two (Shildon and Guisborough) have pulled themselves away so we’ve got to look at third where we’d get a home draw in the play offs. That’s what we’re looking at now, trying to get third, so our priorities have shifted a little bit. So we go to Horden on Wednesday in the League Cup and you’ll probably see a different team, like Kendal did last week when they played a lot of young lads. We’ll be playing players who haven’t been playing a lot of minutes, to see what they’re about and give them an opportunity and then we’ll look at the priority on Saturday when we go down to Boro Rangers.”
