UniBond Premier

22nd March 2006

Attendance - 262

Team - Escritt, Brumwell, Richards, Farthing, Wilford, Yalcin, Greening, Nicholson, Ormerod, Brunskill, Batchelor subs Atkinson, McTiernan, Barber

Report - from www.whitbytoday.co.uk New boy Ricky Greening netted within two minutes to keep Whitby’s flickering play-off hopes alive on Wednesday night.
Whitby made a flying start as the ball was played across the box for Greening, brother of West Brom star Jonathan, to slide home left-footed from close range.
Leading scorer Danny Brunskill then doubled the lead on 13 minutes following a horrendous gaffe by Gateshead keeper Peter Keen.
His clearance struck the big striker, the last person you would want to concede possession to in that area, and he waltzed round Keen to roll the ball into the empty net.
The game bore similar characteristics to last season’s fixture, Dave Logan’s first in charge, when the Blues also charged into a two-goal lead early on.
Gateshead threatened on a breakaway when the ball was teed off to Keith Graydon whose stinging shot from the edge of the area brought a fine save from keeper Ben Escritt.
Brunskill then demonstrated his undoubted class as he chested down Scott Nicholson’s header and hit a great volley on the turn only inches over the bar.
The quality of the game began to deteriorate as Gateshead finally plugged the huge gaps that had appeared in their defence.
Nicholson got a sight of goal before the interval but his free-kick lacked sufficient power to trouble Keen.
Neither side wowed the crowd with any sort of flowing football in the second half but thankfully for the Blues, Gateshead never looked like getting back into the game.
When the visitors won a fortunate free-kick just outside the box, Paul Thompson tried to catch out Escritt with a quickly-taken free-kick but the keeper was alert to the danger.
In a rare moment of second half excitement, Brunskill shrugged off his marker and blasted a shot towards the bottom corner, but Keen reacted well to push the ball wide.