Team - D Campbell, Williams, Robinson,Hassan, Leeson, McTiernan, Martin, Hodgson, Tymon, A Campbell, Blackford (Gardner – 55) Subs not used: Faichney, McDermid, Dunford, Courtney
Report - by Andy Baxter - A crowd of 202 saw Whitby Town, still looking for their first home win of the season, lose a two goal lead to end up disappointingly sharing the points at the Turnbull ground. The home side started positively and played some attractive football, with Andy Campbell playing behind Matty Tymon up front. In the 9th minute, a speculative 25 yard strike from Callum Martin flew well over the visitor’s bar and 6 minutes later at the other end, a long through ball beat the Whitby backline and saw the visitor’s towering striker, Chris Amadi, who was through one on one, embarrassingly hoof his shot over the top of the surrounding houses at the end of the ground. David McTiernan, playing his 200th match for Whitby Town, struck a powerful 30 yard free kick goal bound into the grateful arms of keeper Terry Smith, but in the 21st minute, the Whitby man opened the scoring, following some sloppy defending from the visitors, as he moved to his right and drove a low shot into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Whitby continued to play much of the better football and Ashton looked rocky at the back, giving the ball back to the home side on many occasions. But they did come close to an equaliser in the 37th minute when the unmarked Ian Bennett at the edge of the area, struck a shot which flew inches over the bar and keeper Dave Campbell. Ashton continued to push for the equaliser and the Whitby midfield and defence were kept busy at the end of the half. The visitor’s emerged for the second period even more positive but were dealt a cruel blow in the 49th minute when a long through ball from Whitby captain, Mark Robinson, was headed back by defender Chris Rimmer past the advancing keeper Smith and the ball trickled in to the empty net to double Whitby’s lead.
After a challenge in the centre, Billy Blackford ended up on the ground, only for the Whitby youngster to be stretchered off with a suspected broken collar bone and replaced by a new player making his debut, Ross Gardner. Ashton’s sub Danny Lambert then had a shot narrowly wide past the outstretched Campbell in the Whitby goal and the home side’s Matty Tymon also came close on 62 minutes. But the visitor’s were in the ascendency and the Whitby rear guard coped well with the onslaught, including a superb save from Campbell which denied the powerful striker, Amadi’s, angled shot and seconds later a low drive from Peter Wright. But Campbell could do nothing about Ashton’s 75th minute goal when a ball played back at the edge of the box was latched on to by the incoming Jon Bathurst who crashed it home from 8 yards out to half Whitby’s lead.
The visitor’s looked like they believed they could get something from this game and continued to pile on the pressure for the equaliser, but with 7 minutes left on the watch, 28 year old Matty O’Neill, who had never been sent off in his playing career, did see the referee Matt McGrath dismiss him for a second yellow card following an untimely tackle, although ironically O’Neill was awarded the visitor’s Man of the Match for his contribution throughout the game.
Following the earlier injury delay with Billy Blackford, the referee signalled 5 additional minutes in which Ashton produced some frantic passing and Whitby some scrambled clearances, until the last minute of the five, when a short corner to the visitor’s was not dealt with by Whitby and a ball into the area was judged to be handled by a defender, seeing the referee point for a penalty. The spot kick was netted by Peter Wright although keeper Campbell guessed correctly and got his finger tips to the ball. Before the game could then briefly re-start the referee went over to the Whitby bench and following an exchange with the very frustrated Tommy Cassidy, ordered the Whitby Manager off the field but there was no time left for play as the visitor’s brought on Josh Rose and the referee then ended the game, with the home supporters fuming over his penalty decision.
After the game, Whitby Manager Tommy Cassidy said “ it was our own fault that they got their 2 goals – one we simply gave them with the back pass and the other, we just fell asleep for the short corner. We played well for 60 minutes and then needlessly threw away 2 points to just end up with the draw. It was very frustrating them getting the penalty after we were denied one in the first half for a blatant push which the referee said he didn’t see. It’s ended up a very frustrating result for us when we should have won this game”.
Cassidy also confirmed that long serving defender Ashley Lyth has chosen to leave the Club for his own reasons and is no longer a Whitby Town player.
