UniBond Premier Division

22nd March 2004

Attendance - 210

Team - Campbell D, Atkinson, Williams, Campbell P, Nicholson, McTiernan, Gildea A, Johnson, Ormerod, Gildea L, Veart Subs - Robinson, Hore

Report - (sorry for this poor effort!) - Whitby Town, without a recognised centre half in their side, and missing striker Mark Sheeran, stunned third placed Barrow with 3-2 win at the Turnbull Ground.
The game had been rearranged from a few weeks ago and only a small crowd of 210 turned up to see one the best matches at home this season.
Whitby started brightly with McTiernan and Ormerod looking sharp, but the first bit of controversy occurred after 5 minutes when Nicholson's boot connected with Neil Campbell's head when trying to clear the ball from the Whitby box. The referee, who missed the incident was alerted by the linesman, and booked Nicholson.
Six minutes later Whitby took the lead their early good work had deserved when McTiernan broke down the left and fired in a 20yarder into the bottom corner of former Whitby keeper Simon Bishop's net. Whitby were looking good at this stage but were pegged back only 7 minutes later when former Stalybridge skipper, Kenny Mayers rose to powerfully head the equaliser from a corner.
Whitby looked to pressure Barrow, and they made the Conference hopefuls task even harder when Anthony Ormerod broke through on goal with minutes left to half time. Gavin Salmon hauled the former Boro down in the box and was shown a red card for his troubles. The ever reliable Craig Veart strode up and put the penalty away for a 2-1 half time lead.
Barrow were not put off by the dismissal and equalied again when Mayers shot from 25 yards out forced a save from Campbell, who despite getting both hands on the ball, watched in bounce gently over the line.
Whitby weren't to be out done though and with 11 minutes remaining Steve Johnson scored the winner and his first in a Whitby shirt when his shot on the turn flew into the net giving Bishop no chance. The relief was eveident on the crowd's face when the referee blew for full time as this was definitely a bonus three points that moves the Blues up to 14th place in the table.