Whitby Town - Season 2002/03 Review
After such a difficult season the year before, Whitby Town were most peoples favourites for the drop this season. A couple of pre season signings had seen the homecoming of local lad and ex Reading and Hull City player Steve Swales, plus right back Tom Reid from Northallerton Town and Michael Laws from Northampton Town.
A first day win a home against Colwyn Bay was a boost for the Turnbull crowd, and after defeat at home by an in form Burscough, Whitby embarked on a great 4 game winning streak at home. The only trouble was that ther crowds were not picking up. Playing poorly at home over over the last three seasons had seen the new fans aquired during the late 90's disappear.
The club were also under the threat of relegation from the Unibond Premier unless the delapidated stand was replaced. An ambitious project that had been in the pipeline for a few years was launched although the club needed to raise £45,000 to be eligible for the necessary grants and funding.
The FA Cup was a short lived exercise as Town were dumped in the 2nd quallifying round by Bradford Park Avenue. The competition was where the £45k was going to be raised, but that didn't turn out right this season as the West Yorkshire outfit thumped us 4-0 at home!
Revelation of the season was youngster Aron Wilford. After playing the back end of the previous season and the start of the new one as a centre half, Whitby manager Harry Dunn listened to the former Middlesborough trainee, and played him upfront. The goals started to flow for Wilford, and when he scored, Whitby won. Although his goals dried up at the end of the season, he still looked likely to score at any minute.
The FA Trophy campaign lasted one round longer than the FA Cup, but a 4-2 defeat at Barrow was the end of that.
The Unibond League Cup was just a distraction and an extra time loss to Gateshead was written off as a minor blip.
By mid October, an amazing 7-1 win at Frickley saw the Seasiders climb to the heady heights of 3rd place.
A top six finish was well within Whitby's grasp at this point and for once the home form was holding up well. The team managed tohold on to a top seven position for most of the season, although results would come in patches.
The turn of the year saw a resounding 5-2 demolition of on form Droylsden at the Turnbull ground. This was the last home win of the season. The next nine home games resulted in in only 2 points gained. dismal performance for no apparent reason. The normally boggy Turnbull pitch was bobbly through the winter months but both teams had to play on it, and some very good footballing sides showed the Seasiders how to do it.
Another flaw in Whitby's campaign was the amount of late goals conceded. Too many times a game was given away by poor defending with ten minutes left. The previous 80 minutes would show that the defence was solid, but the concentration factor came into play during those final ten.
One postitive not for the season was the lack of coming and going of players. It had seemed that when the FA Vase and promtion sides had split up, manager Harry Dunn had struggled to find suitable replacements and this season settled side improved results. The players at Harry's disposal are also all young. Some have a desire to break into the Football League so if the manager can keep them together and help them work on their games, then there is no reason that they can help themselves and Whitby Town to higher and better things next season.
With the new stand on the verge of being built and a new structure at level 6 of the pyramid, there are some massive decisions to be made by the committee next season. Everyone is hoping that the new facilites will bring some fans back to help with the financial side of things. That would certainly ease the pressure a little on a small hard up club!
Finally, no Whitby Town season review can be complete without mentioning Geoff Swales. Geoff was killed in an accident at the Turnbull Ground on April 7th. He was quite simply Whitby Town through and through and will be sorely missed by everyone at the club, fans, players and management alike. I'm sure that he is watching over us now and will be rolling his eyes over those last two home defeats and a a 10th place finish.
Next season? Who knows!
