UniBond Premier Division

2nd January 2006

Attendance -

Team - Escritt Brumwell Veart Farthing Hudson Richards McTiernan Nicholson Wilford Brunskill Batchelor subs Atkinson Aziz Ormerod

Report - by Andrew Snaith - Whitby’s first clash of 2006 ended in defeat amid five goals and three penalties at Gateshead’s International Stadium on Monday.

Danny Brunskill’s two strikes in the final two minutes of the first half put Whitby level going into the break following a Paul Thompson brace, but a second half Adam Johnston strike gave Gateshead the points after Craig Veart suffered his first penalty miss in three seasons for Whitby in the 92nd minute.

Whitby manager Dave Logan made two changes from the side that rattled league leaders North Ferriby 4-2 on Boxing Day- Scott Nicholson returning to the midfield after a one-match suspension and Chris Hudson recalled to the defence. Consequently, two local lads Paul Atkinson, dropped to the bench and Tom Raw missed out altogether with a hamstring injury. Former Middlesbrough striker Ant Ormerod was named on the bench but was far from full fitness after missing out the week before.

Whitby’s back four looked far from full fitness themselves in the opening minute when a pinpoint cross was poked home from close range, despite a suspicion of offside, by Paul Thompson.

Five minutes later, and the Seasiders should’ve levelled when Brunskill’s square ball picked out Chris Batchelor at the far post, but the teenager shot straight at goalkeeper Peter Keen from point blank range when it seemed easier to score.

On 12 minutes, Aron Wilford’s ambitious driven free-kick from fully 30 yards flew well wide, and moments later, the Blues’ 13-goal top scorer headed into Keen’s hands after getting up well at the far post.

Keen again showed his dominance on 17 minutes, showing why he’s earned rave reviews in recent weeks as he effortlessly plucked Craig Veart’s 25 yard free-kick out of the air.

Visiting keeper Ben Escritt was then on hand to keep Whitby in the match when a neat one-two left the backline flatfooted and only a superb reaction parry kept out Chris Feasey’s fearsome drive.

Three minutes later, and Escritt was forced to tip a low Thompson drive round his right-hand post.

Gateshead continued to threaten and Adam Johnston should’ve doubled their lead on 27 minutes after barging his way past Veart on the right, but after neatly cutting inside, the well-travelled ex-Darlington and Whitby forward could only poke wide.

It seemed it truly wasn’t to be Whitby’s day on 40 minutes when Wilford waltzed round the entire home defence, including keeper Keen, but with an open goal beckoning, somehow drove against the inside of the near post, to cut short his own premature celebration.

And just to rub salt in the wounds within seconds Gateshead were up the other end and referee Mr Curry from Morpeth was pointing to the penalty spot. Nicholson stood little chance of avoiding a fierce drive just inside his own box, but was adjudged to have deliberately handled the ball when appearing to be shielding his face. Thompson made no mistake from the resulting spot-kick, sending Escritt the wrong way and finding the bottom-right corner of the net for his second of the match and take his tally for the season into double figures.

However, there was to be an even bigger turning point with just three minutes of the first half remaining as an outraegeous piece of skill put Feasey through on goal, but when 3-0 looked a foregone conclusion, the 22-year-old winger conspired to fire high over the crossbar from close range.

Within seconds, Town were up the other end as Richard Flynn’s slip let in Brunskill to fire at Keen but grab some rare good fortune and chest home the rebound for 2-1.

Obviously buoyed by this, Whitby drove on with Batchelor crossing from the left and Brunskill getting between Laws and Flynn to head emphatically into the top-right corner of the net for his fifth goal in two matches right on the stroke of half-time.

Despite the barely deserved parity at the interval, boss Logan looked far from impressed with his side’s lacklustre first half display.

But three minutes into the second period, Brunskill nearly notched his second successive hat-trick after out-muscling Luke Smith down the right flank and cutting along the touchline, but fired at Keen who did doubly well to cling onto the loose ball.

Moments later, Wilford strode forward and with Dave McTiernan in acres of space on the right edge of the Gateshead box, squared for the former Middlesbrough youth star to curl disappointingly wide.

Thompson turned neatly at the other end, but fired wide, however, in a reversal of the first half, it was virtually all Whitby with Nicholson’s header again picking out Keen from McTiernan’s cross on the hour.

The hosts, struggling third-from-bottom in the league going into the match, looked even more vulnerable when Flynn was stretchered off after an innocuous looking midfield collision with the groundstaff taking an age to find the apparatus to support the unfortunate youngster.

Whitby continued to throw the kitchen sink at their rivals, with McTiernan’s ferocious drive from distance deflected just wide and Nicholson will feel he should’ve done better with a poor connection inside the six yard box enabling Keen to pull off a nevertheless excellent reaction stop.

On-loan Hartlepool United youngster Phil Turnbull then became the second Gateshead player to leave the field on a stretcher albeit with a much less serious-looking injury with 20 minutes remaining, though his replacement Steve Harrison was to prove a vital addition.

Phil Brumwell, continuing as Whitby captain but now operating at right-back, powered a vicious effort just over the top from 25 yards, but ominously, Feasey had a free-kick pushed round Escritt’s left-hand post with the Blues’ keeper just about getting down in time.

Johnston fired straight at Escritt as the home side started to creep back into the game, while at the other end, Nicholson suffered a bad two minutes, directing a header wide when well placed and finding himself in the book after a lunging challenge.

Things then went from bad to worse for the visitors as Gateshead regained the lead with just eight minutes remaining. Harrison found Johnston on the edge of the box, who fired a skidding drive that Escritt could only parry back into the striker’s path, and the ex-Whitby man drove his second attempt clinically inside the bottom-left corner of the net. The goal clearly meant a lot to the relegation-threatened Tynesiders, as the players, led by Johnston mobbed manager Colin Richardson and the Gateshead bench after the goal.

And with four minutes remaining, it seemed the hosts had surely crossed the winning line at the International Stadium after they were awarded a second controversial penalty. The referee allowed play to continue for a full minute after Johnston went down in the box under Brumwell’s tackle from behind which appeared to take the ball. With the action now in the home penalty area, the nearest linesman’s memory was kick-started by Gateshead manager Colin Richardson who ran halfway towards the corner flag to protest- the official finally flagging the referee over, who promptly changed his mind and pointed to the spot once again.

However, on this occasion justice was done as Escritt threw himself low to his left and denied Thompson a hat-trick and surely the winner, with a fine save.

Unbelievably, this match had yet more twists and Brunskill was again at the heart of it, as four minutes were announced of injury time, the man Blues fans call Bruno, went down under another ex-Blue Michael Laws’ challenge, and amazingly, Mr Curry awarded the third penalty of the match. Two minutes into injury time, Veart- with 20 successful spot-kick conversions over five seasons to his name- stepped up and sent Keen the wrong way but drove his kick against the unguarded post and the Blues big chance was gone.

Gateshead went on to survive the inevitable Whitby onslaught with Escritt himself just missing out on creating an even more sensational finish when he headed over McTiernan’s corner at the death.