UniBond Premier Division

31st March 2005

Attendance -

Team - Campbell.D, Williams, Veart, Farthing, Obern, Gildea.A, McTiernan, Nicholson, Ormerod, Gildea.L (Johnson 88), Richards - Subs not used Escritt, Campbell.P

Report - by BJM - The old cliché "A game of two halves" was never more apt than last night at Guiseley where a depleted Whitby side gave a 'Jekyll & Hyde' performance on a tricky surface. It's hard to say if it was a point won or two points lost though with hindsight possibly the former applied in the end. Whitby started brightly, taking the offensive & were rewarded as early as the fifth minute when they were awarded a penalty. Ormerod spotted McTiernan in space to the right of the area & fed the ball through to him. As the forward surged forward he was challenged by a defender & the whistle blew. Neither side appeared to know what the offence was & the crowd certainly had no idea but from the referee's actions it's thought shirt-pulling by the defender was the reason a penalty was awarded. Craig Veart eagerly took the ball, place it on the penalty spot & thumped the ball past the keeper to give Whitby the lead. The visitors managed to contain their hosts for the remainder of the half with Campbell & the central defenders dealing with anything thrown at them. Whitby went close to increasing their lead twice more during the half when Karl Richard's strike flew just over the crossbar in the 15th minute and five minutes later Alex Gildea's magnificent long range volley struck the crossbar with the keeper beaten.

The second half saw Guiseley apply pressure from the off & were back on level terms after 50 minutes. Scott Nicholson conceded a free kick on the edge of the area after a hot-headed challenge but the resulting shot was beaten down by the defensive wall. The rebound was looped high to one side of Campbell's goal but the keeper only managed a weak punch out as far as Illingworth who headed the ball straight back into the net. After this set-back, Guiseley took the upper hand and laid siege to the Whitby goal. As the half wore on it was noticeable how Whitby became more & more disorganised with tempers fraying between themselves and at one time even the manager came in for some flak. For all their possession, Guiseley couldn't make the final breakthrough & Whitby stood firm to keep hold of a valuable point.