Bay manager Nick Gray was happy with his team’s performance in what he agreed was a well merited 3-1 victory over Newcastle Benfield, but he could still see areas for improvement.
“I think it was deserved, yes, I think the first half was quite even. They’ve had a great chance at 0-0 and Harrison has pulled off the save. We opened the score from a good delivery into the box and from then to half time I thought we needed to be better in possession. Second half they’ve changed their shape which was credit to us. Second half I thought we were a lot better and we got in some good areas but we haven’t been clinical enough and to be fair they’ve had a couple of good chances, but overall they’ll be disappointed because they’ve had a couple they haven’t scored, but we had three or four really good chances. But listen we’ve got the result in the end and although we’ve got to be more clinical I’m really pleased with the amount of chances we created. We said to them it’s a great three points, it’s a great win, we’ve still got lots to work on and we want to keep your standards high and make your standards better. Yes we’ll take the positives today but we’ll not kid ourselves. We’ve still got to be more ruthless and clinical in the final third and if we keep on working at it I’m sure we will do. It’s not a bad thing when you’re not taking chances and still getting three points and scoring three goals, but we’ll take it. There’s a lot more positives than negatives.”
In the lead up to Whitley’s third goal, there was a collision involving Benfield keeper Andrew Grainger. Nick commented “The third goal I would have been disappointed if I’d been on the other side if we’d conceded that. It was a bit harsh on them, the third goal if I’m being honest, but it was a great finish by Ben. Overall on the chances I think we did edge it. Both sides could’ve been more clinical in the final third and there’d have been a lot more goals for the supporters. But listen we’ll take it. Now we’ve got another free week. Training this week’s been great and we’ve got another week where we’ve seen little things we’ve worked on. We need to keep working at them. We always want to push our standards higher. We’ve still got a lot to come from this group, but nine games in we’re doing ok and I’m quite pleased at where we’re at.”
