Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley Bay manager Liam McIvor summed up the mood among players and fans after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Crook Town. “We threw three points away. We had a great first half but didn’t kill them off and we let them back into it and we’ve robbed ourselves of three points.
“We were too naïve as a team. The game’s over 90 minutes not 45. It happened on Wednesday night. You’ve got to kill teams off if you’re going to win games and I cannot stress it enough. We’ve talked about that at half time but we threw it away.”
It looked a completely different story in the first half when Whitley controlled the game and took a well deserved lead. “We were consistently excellent first half. I cannot praise them enough for the first half but the game’s over 90 minutes. We’ve got to kill teams off. We’ve been done off two long balls into the corner and two balls into the box.”
Crook’s midweek game had been called off as the pitch was waterlogged following persistent rain but Liam was not blaming the conditions for the outcome of the game. “There’s no excuse about the pitch. It was probably one of the better ones I’ve seen for a long time, so no excuses from me. Both teams have got the pitch, both teams have got the officials, no, we’ve done it ourselves.
“For the first half I cannot applaud them enough but second half we just didn’t turn up.”
