Report by Julian Tyley
Whitley came from behind to claim three precious points at Crook Town on Tuesday night. Callum Larmouth, who scored a stunning equaliser with a shot from outside the box, described the 2-1 victory as ‘a massive result’, taking Whitley into third place, three points clear of Kendal Town and with a game in hand of their Cumbrian rivals.
There was no sign of what was to come during a disappointing first half as Crook grew in confidence and deservedly went in 1-0 ahead at the interval.
Speaking shortly after the game, Larmouth readily agreed that it was far from a vintage performance. “ Definitely, I think we didn’t have our best of games today what with the travelling and just after playing a hard game against Boro Rangers on Saturday, but we’re happy with three points.
“We weren’t great. The pitch didn’t really help us. We didn’t get used to it at all but it was good to come away with three points after being behind.”
Whitley looked a lot better in the second half and Callum admitted that some strong words were said in the dressing room at half time. “The message was to stop rushing it and play the way we usually play, because we were rushing a lot of things and taking too many touches.”
The equaliser shortly before the hour mark was a classic Larmouth goal, an unstoppable effort from outside the box that curled just inside the far post with the Crook keeper rooted to the spot. Clearly delighted, Callum commented “I was happy with the goal, that’s three in three games now so I’m finding a bit more form. I’ve lacked a bit of the attacking form dropping into centre midfield so with Jay playing us up there I’m quite happy. To be honest I thought it was going wide but it just crept in at the last minute which makes it even better because it was in the top corner!”
Did he believe Whitley could come from behind to win the game? “Definitely as we came out second half I think we had the upper hand anyway we were pressing them and they couldn’t really cope with it and with that goal we just knew we were going to kick on and maybes get another one which we did. I was definitely confident we could get the winner. Being one behind, you want the two goals so you think it’s going to be a long process but when we got that equaliser early on, it gave us at least 20 minutes to get the winner.
Bay fans felt the substitutions were key to the outcome, and Callum agreed with that assessment “All the subs that came on were great but especially Nathan and Gildo. They gave us something else. Gildo gave us that bit energy and Nathan was tremendous holding up the ball so strong, so we thought we’ll play to our strengths, and it worked.” Mackenzie Sharpe tapped home the winner after great work by the subs and Callum was delighted for the club’s top scorer. “Definitely. I’m buzzing for Macca because he gets so much confidence when he scores and that’s exactly what he needed, so it’s good for the team and good for Macca himself.
“To be honest I think a draw would have been a fair result. I don’t think that was anywhere near our standards tonight but we’re more than happy with the three points. If we can come down to Crook on a Tuesday night and get three points, it’s a massive result. It’s not just three points it’s a huge result for us especially in the position where we are.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s game at bottom of the table West Allotment he cautioned against over confidence. “I think in this league you can’t ever think it’s an easy game. You see plenty of teams getting shock results and we’ve been on the wrong end of it at some point so I think we’ve just got to go and play our game well and as long as we do, I think we’ll get the three points.”
The Craik Park pitch in Morpeth, where Allotment currently play, is an all-weather surface, as was the case at Boro Rangers last week. So what do the players prefer, grass or 4G? “I think we all prefer to play on grass. I don’t think anyone prefers 4G over grass but considering tonight’s pitch maybe you’d prefer 4G. But when we play on 4G we know what we can do, we train on it what we can do, but we definitely prefer to play on grass.”
