Report by Julian Tyley
Yesterday’s game against Horden CW at Hillheads was one that coach Gary Somerville believed Whitley could have won by three or four goals, such was their domination of their County Durham opponents.
However, it took until the 88th minute for the deadlock to be broken with top scorer Mackenzie Sharpe getting the all important goal.
Gary told us “I thought we played well to be honest. I thought we had much more of the ball, had loads of chances, just couldn’t seem to hit the back of the net, couldn’t score. Maybe on another day we’d probably go in at half time two or three nil up. They had a few chances but we should have taken a lot more of ours than we did.”
The strong wind blowing down the pitch was a significant factor, with Whitley having the elements at the back but that wasn’t always to their advantage with the ball not easy to control at times. “You feel like it’s a gimmie when you’re playing with the wind but then chance after chance you miss, certain ones from a couple of yards out that you would normally score. Then you’ve always got that feeling that they’re just going to come and nick one at the end, but it was us today that scored the winner.”
Mackenzie Sharp had the ball in the back of the net inside the first ten minutes but assistant indicated offside, a decision that looked at best marginal. “We thought he was onside to be honest and it was a good finish into the roof of the net. I think that may have got into his head a bit because sometimes if he doesn’t score, he seems to be chasing the chance, chasing the goal, but then when he relaxes and gets it, he can score one, he can score two or three more. That’s why he’s one of the top goalscorers in the league.
“We were in control for most of the game. They had a couple of chances but other than that we totally bossed the game. If we had gone on and won by three or four nobody could have really argued, but in football you’ve got to score the goals.”
Teenager Nathan Nkunku had an excellent game last weekend at Kendal and many fans expected him to start this game but instead he was named on the bench. Gary explained “ To be honest, Nathan would have started but he didn’t feel 100% right so we made a couple of changes Graham Williams has also got a bit of an injury so we didn’t want to him to play unless needed. Nathan was the same, carrying a little knock so we didn’t bring him on until late on, it’s what the squad’s for.”
The victory took Whitley to just a point from guaranteeing a play off. North Shields could still match Whitley’s points total but with four games to play, the Bay have a far superior goal difference.
As Gary pointed out “It was our objective from the start of the season to finish in the promotion place or play offs so we’re where we want to be it’s up to us now to do the right thing and finish 3rd .If you’re in the play offs you want to finish second or third to get a home play off. Second’s away from us now but if we finish third we’ll see how it goes.”
On Tuesday Whitley travel to relegation threatened Northallerton Town. The North Yorkshire side have struggled this season but Gary warned against any complacency with the two sides battling for the points for very different reasons.
“I think it’s hard because if you look at the table, teams near the bottom are often harder to beat at the end of the season than they are at the beginning or the middle, because either they get a different manager or different players. It just makes it a harder game because some of the teams at the bottom aren’t like they were. It only takes bringing in two or three players or a new manager and it just changes the whole dynamic and that’s what’s happened with a lot of those teams.”
Looking further ahead, Whitley make the much shorter trip to North Shields next weekend and Gary commented “Next Saturday’s derby, it’s very important, for all of us but especially for the fans. If we could win on Saturday, then take that into Wednesday for the Senior Cup game, we’ll see where our season pans out. A nice season ending game at St James’ wouldn’t go amiss!”
