FA Trophy 1st Round Replay

10th October 2004

Attendance - 172

Team - Campbell D, Obern (sub Atkinson), Veart, Farthing, Linighan, Nicholson, Bishop, Scaife, Johnson, Robinson ( sub Gildea L) Ormerod Subs not used: Campbell P, McTiernan, Escritt.

Report - by Bri Murfield - Whitby battled their way through to the next round against stiff opposition as well as atrocious weather conditions. The first half was filled with incident & began as soon as the game was kicked off. Referee Simpson spotted that Whitby keeper Campbell was wearing a similar top to that of the visitors so 3 minutes were lost while another jersey was found. At the restart the Blues took the lead when Ormerod's right wing cross was met by an unmarked Craig Veart lurking on the 6 yard line. Veart, the Blues' penalty & free kick expert chose his spot & powered home a thumping header past Marine keeper Mike Stuart. A rare sight indeed!
The visitors struck back ten minutes later when they were awarded a dubious free kick on the edge of Whitby's penalty area. The ball was touched to McGuire who drilled his shot through a hole in the defensive wall past the stranded Whitby keeper to make it 1-1.
With just over quarter of an hour gone, Whitby regained the lead when Scott Nicholson matched McGuire's shot from open play by hammering his shot past Staurt's desperate dive & into the bottom corner of the net.
With 22 minutes elapsed, the game was brought to a halt when referee Simpson limped off the field with what turned out to be a pulled muscle. The game was held up for 10 more minutes while a replacement official was found. Radio presenter Ivan Ash stepped forward to run the line while one of the other Assistant Referees took charge of proceedings. With a minute of the first half remaining, Whitby's best move of the match was thwarted by Stuart after Robinson's close range effort was blocked.
In contrast to the first period, the second was a tame affair although both sides had a couple of shots narrowly wide of the target. Both Bishop & Nicholson had good opportunities to put Whitby further ahead but both headed wide of the mark from good positions. Anthony Ormerod could have put the game beyond doubt two minutes from time when he was clean through but Stuart did well to bravely dive at the forward's feet.
All in all a good display from the Blues and they now face a trip to Stalybridge in the next round.