UniBond Premier

August 20th 2005

Attendance - 318

Team - Escritt, Atkinson, Veart, Farthing, Hudson, Nicholson, Brown, Scaife, Raw(Ormerod 30), Wells(McTiernan 75), Richards. Sub not used: Burke.

Report - by Andrew Snaith - Whitby Town kicked off the season with victory over newly promoted Ilkeston at the Turnbull Ground on Saturday. Both sides had a man sent off in the second half but goals from Scott Nicholson and Ant Ormerod were enough to secure the Blues' first points on the opening day.

Manager Dave Logan gave competitive debuts to midfielder Andy Brown and local-lad forward Tom Raw from the now defunct Spennymoor United. While Ben Escritt replaced last season’s number one Dave Campbell who has struggled recently with a knee injury.

However, it was the visitors who looked most competitive in the opening exchanges, forcing a succession of corners. This culminated in Clifford’s cross-field ball finding Gary Townsend on the left edge of the Blues box, but the TV pundit’s namesake guided an accurate drive against the far post with Escritt struggling to cover.

From then on it was all Whitby, with Ilkeston keeper Ben Scott doing well to thwart both Raw and Nicholson on 18 minutes. But five minutes later, the hosts were ahead. David Wells’ deep cross from the right caught the top of the visitors’ crossbar and dropped nicely for Nicholson to sidefoot home completely unmarked from point-blank range.

Whitby suffered a blow just before the break when Raw went down by the touchline after a collision with an Ilkeston player, and the 20-year-old forward was to limp off seven minutes before the interval- former Middlesbrough striker Ant Ormerod took his place in a straight swap.

Worse news was to follow for the home side two minutes into the second half when Chris Hudson reacted to a late challenged with an elbow right in-front of the referee. Mr McCallum from Whitley Bay had no hesitation in showing a straight red card to the former Harrogate centre-half on his return to the Turnbull following a six season absence.

And rather inevitably Ilkeston found their way back into the match, the visitors looked certain to level four minutes later when Escritt’s clearance picked out Townsend inside the Blues’ six yard box, but the former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder again managed to find the post, when it seemed easier to find the back of the Whitby net.

Two minutes later at the other end, Wells twisted and turned just outside the Ilkeston box, before firing in a crisp 20 yard effort that Scott acrobatically pushed over the bar.

The former Billingham Synthonia man then had a glorious effort to put the game beyond the visitors when left clear on the edge of the area, but he rushed his shot and chipped well over when one-on-one with Scott.

On the hour mark, the Derbyshire side had a string of opportunities with the ball ping-ponging around in the Whitby box, but finally Chris Adam’s effort was hoofed clear.

Whitby introduced lively winger Dave McTiernan for Wells with fifteen minutes remaining, but the action continued at the other end with only Escritt’s superb reactions denying Clifford an equaliser from 12 yards.

On 81 minutes, prolific sub Mick Goddard caught Escritt high with a late challenge, but with the home crowd baying for the numbers to be evened, Goddard got away with a booking.

But the Robins were not so fortunate two minutes later when Clifford pole-axed McTiernan by the corner flag as the Whitby man played for time. It was the former Mansfield trainee’s second booking of the afternoon and he was serenaded off the field as the contest became ten on ten for the last six minutes.

Nick Scaife signalled Whitby’s intentions with a first-time shot that just cleared the Ilkeston crossbar from 18 yards. But Dave Logan’s side were to find the killer second goal just three minutes from time, as the visitors again fell asleep at the back. Karl Richards’ ball over the top picked out Ormerod free just outside the Reds’ box, and the ex-England Youth international had all the time in the world to pick his spot and despatch the ball clinically past Scott and into the bottom right corner for 2-0.