UniBond Premier Division

19th August 2006

Attendance - 307

Team - Campbell, Reid(Atkinson 10), Brumwell, Farthing, Wilford, Scaife(Hughes 67), Ormerod, Claisse, Raw(Parkin 85), Brunskill, Richards.

Report - by Andrew Snaith - Whitby brought home a valuable point from the tough 148 mile trip to Leek but could have taken all three after leading through a 25-yard Karl Richards piledriver with eight minutes remaining.

Earlier, Leek's top scorer last season Alan Nagington had put the home side ahead, before Blues' equivalent Danny Brunskill levelled the scores just before the break.

A makeshift Seasiders' team made the long journey to Staffordshire with five players missing for Lee Nogan's first competitive match in charge. However, you wouldn't have known it as former Whitby keeper Martin Kearney's scuffed clearance put Ant Ormerod through in the opening seconds. However, after carrying the ball from 40 yards out and allowing Kearney to get back, Tom Raw backheeled Ormerod's cut back goalwards from six yards- only for Paul Booth to clear off his own line.

Whitby continued to threaten with Brunskill's shot on the turn straight at Kearney, and Ormerod volleying over from a tough angle. But Nogan's men suffered a blow early on when defender Tom Reid limped off moments after a badly-timed challenge that resulted in a foul being given against him. Luckily, the Seasiders have a good supply of right-backs at the moment, with Neil Wilkinson injured for four weeks, Paul Atkinson emerged from the bench to fill in at the back in Reid's absence.

Despite that setback and Dave McPherson coming close on 14 minutes, it was still a suprise when the Harrison Park outfit grabbed the lead three minutes later. Mark Devlin's corner kick was headed down by Wooliscroft at the far post for Nagington to force the loose ball past Campbell in a crowded six yard box.

The visitors must've feared the worst after the referee spent several minutes deliberating over a rash Danny Farthing lunge on Jordan Johnson- however, after much ado the official decided on just a yellow for the young centre-half.

Nick Scaife forced Kearney to push a 30-yard drive wide, while Anthony Danylyk tested Campbell with a similar effort from distance.

As the game threatened to turn ugly, Ashley Wooliscroft followed through late on Brunskill with Tom Claisse pushing Wooliscroft in the chest right in front of the referee's nose. Suprisingly, the man in the middle decided to take no action against either party.

Whitby's efforts were finally rewarded on 42 minutes in familiar fashion. Karl Richards persevered down the right and fired low into Brunskill who was allowed to swivel and fire low into the bottom right corner from 12 yards at the second attempt.

And the second half saw the men from North Yorkshire resume from where they left off in the first. Paul Atkinson struck a ferocious angled drive from 25 yards which Kearney tipped round his near post.

Aron Wilford's back post header then set up Raw, Brunskill and Ormerod who all had close range efforts charged down in quick succession. Ormerod then fired wide from the edge of the box after Raw's neat flick on.

At the other end, Lee Barrow headed straight at Campbell after Whitby failed to clear a corner and Dave McPherson's deft chip from an acute angle on the left flank dropped just past Whitby's far post with the Town keeper struggling.

On the hour mark, Richards' angled far post drive flew just wide, and five minutes later, the former Hartlepool United man tested Kearney from 20 yards, with the keeper who represented Whitby on loan for the first month of the 2003/04 campaign, saved well low to his right.

However, the 20-year-old Richards was not to be denied- the left winger collected the ball after good work from Ormerod, and cut inside the covering defender before unleashing an unstoppable 25-yard curler into the top-right corner of the net past the despairing Kearney.

As expected, Leek then piled on the pressure, with Devlin's excellent full-stretch low cross was just poked wide by Farthing under pressure from Nagington.

The resulting corner saw Wilford head clear but the versatile centre-half turned villain seconds later when he conceded a free-kick just outside the Whitby box with a shove in the back. Wooliscroft stepped up and aided by a huge deflection, planted his free-kick past the wrong-footed Campbell for a late equaliser.

Late on, Scaife conceded another set piece in a similar position, but thankfully for the Yorkshiremen, the backline was able to block the effort and hook the ball clear. And even later still, the referee's whistle came to Whitby's aid, as Leek had the ball in the back of Campbell's net for a third time- but the linesman had already flagged for offside.

All in all, despite failing to hold on at the end, a depleted Town side produced a good result against the odds and will go into tonight's trip to Frickley with plenty of confidence, especially as two of the five absentees return- midfielders Graham Robinson and Matty Appleby available for selection once again.