UniBond Premier

28th October 2009

Attendance - 346

Team - Campbell, Lyth, Leeson, Ingram, Burgess, A Gildea (Sub: Gott - 69), Hussan, Hackworth, Brunskill, Beadle, Charlton (Sub: L Gildea - 72) Subs not used: Dalton, Hanson, Woodhead

Report - by Andy Baxter - A mild October evening greeted Whitby Town and Bradford Park Avenue who adorned the Turnbull in their very bright flourescent yellow kit, with both sides in need of 3 valuable points.

Straight from the kick off, it was evident that the game would be played at a frantic pace and unfortunately for Whitby, it was Bradford PA who controlled most of the game. The opening goal only took the visitors 5 mins to score when a ball over the top of the Whitby defence found the dangerous Aiden Savory, who had no hesitation in driving a low, angled shot into the far corner of the net past David Campbell.

Whitby found themselves mainly on the back foot and struggled to match Bradford PA's speed on and off the ball. However, they equalised on 15 minutes after a throw in to Danny Brunskill was layed off to the incoming Jimmy Beadle, who, from the corner of the area, struck a superb shot which rocketed into the roof of the visitors net.

But Bradford PA only seemed to lift another gear, and continued to pile on the pressure as they strove to regain their lead. A teasing run from Savory ended with captain, Simon Baldry, forcing Campbell to produce a great save. Then, with 28 minutes on the clock, an almost identical re-run of the opening goal again saw the ball beat the Whitby defence and Matty James' angled shot fly narrowly close to the left hand post. Two minutes later, James again came close when his first time lob over the advancing Campbell saw the ball agonisingly bounce on top of the bar to deny him a goal.

The visitors continued to rain down on the Whitby goal with a well hit 35 yard effort from Luke Gibson whistling past Campbell's left hand post. But Bradford PA then got their deserved reward with a low cross from the right, beating the Whitby defence and Savory was there again, to side foot home from close range.

Whitby emerged in the 2nd half looking brighter and a neat interchange between Brunskill and Tony Hackworth, saw the Whitby captain's shot bring out a good ssave from keeper Stephen Dickinson, only seconds later for the ball to travel the full length of the pitch and the resultant half volley from Savory forced Campbell into action again, tipping the ball over the bar to deny the on form striker his hat trick.

Brunskill did manage a half turn in the box but his shot flew wide and moments later, a nice through ball from Matty James allowed Luke Gibson to shoot narrowly over the Whitby bar. Bradford PA continued their relentless pressure, playing sharp, attacking football and giving Whitby somewhat of a lesson. Whitby Manager, Harry Dunn then made 2 changes as Alex Gildea and Karl Charlton were replaced by Craig Gott and Liam Gildea.

But the entertaining and impressive Bradford PA rounded off their winning night with another goal to surely seal the 3 points from a nicely weighted cross from the right which saw a glancing header from Luke Gibson fly past the diving Campbell. Not suprisingly, it took Whitby until the 84th minute of the second half to register an effort on goal when Liam Gildea struck a low 20 yard shot which forced keeper, Dickinson, to save at his near post. Gildea was then called into action on his own goal line moments later, to clear the ball from Gibson's shot and with 3 additional minutes shown, a late Whitby goal was scored when a shot from Brunskill was only parried by Dickinson, and Beadle was there to force the ball home from close range for his and Whitby's second goal. But it was too late to have any chance of an equaliser.

After the game, many Whitby supporters commented that based on this match, Bradford PA were the best side to appear at the Turnbull this season and when I spoke to the Whitby Manager, Harry Dunn after the game, he said (quote) " They were much sharper than us, but there were some very disappointing performances out there from some Whitby players. There will now be some new players coming in to replace a few of those not performing well enough".

We therefore eagerly await to see what transpires from Harry's comment in the forthcoming weeks ahead but there was certainly no doubting that based upon this match, his team were beaten by the much sharper, fitter and skillfull set of players of Bradford PA.