UniBond Premier Division

8th November 2008

Attendance - 336

Team - Whitby Town: Liversedge, Burgess, Bishop(Nogan 77), Lyth, Forster, Beadle, Huggins, Hackworth, Raw(Brunskill 53), Rae, Charlton. Subs not used: Brumwell, Tinkler, Campbell.

Report - Whitby came from behind twice on Saturday at then second-placed Merseysiders Marine, extending their unbeaten Unibond League run to ten matches in the process.

Town's joint bosses Phil Brumwell and Graham Clark made one change from the side that defeated Stocksbridge in the FA Trophy a week earlier. Versatile defender Leon Scott made way for Craig Bishop in a straight swap at left-back.

The visitors started brightly and Steve Huggins curled a free-kick from a good position into the side netting as early as the second minute. Two minutes later, and a left-wing cross from Karl Charlton was poked straight at keeper Sean Lake by Huggins at full stretch.

The pressure continued and a throw to Michael Rae was caught crisply on the half-volley from the edge of the box, but flew narrowly wide. The 15th minute then saw Charlton's neat play culminate in the tricky forward striking just off target with his back to goal.

Rae drilled another warning shot inches wide from distance, before the match threatened to boil over on the half hour. Referee Mr Siddall adjudged the ball cannoned off Marine's John Lawless during a rare attack from the home side and awarded a goal-kick. The Mariners disagreed and surrounded the official, sparking a fracas between opposing players. The hosts' Karl O'Donnell shoved Bishop to the ground right in front of the referee, who only saw fit to award a yellow card to the number nine, and predictably an agrieved Charlton found himself in the book moments later, after a nasty revenge lunge by the halfway line on ex-Burscough player Lawless.

When play restarted, the one way traffic was unabating with Rae thinking he'd broken the deadlock with another terrific drive from the edge of the area that cannoned off Lake's right-hand post, with the keeper beaten.

Five minutes before the break, Charlton's deep outswinging cross was dropped by Lake under pressure, but Huggins could only hook the loose ball narrowly over the top.

So it felt quite an injustice when the home side led seconds later with their first shot on goal. O'Donnell went down in the area to no avail, but when strike partner Peter Cumiskey reclaimed possession, a similiar sliding challenge from a Whitby defender with an identical result saw the official point to the spot. The nearby linesman, unbeknown to Mr Siddall until the whistle was blown, had his flag raised for offside for some time, however, discussions between the two resulted in the penalty decision standing after the flagged O'Donnell was not adjudged to be interfering in that phase of play.

Steve Hussey was managing to keep up with things, the midfielder squeezed the resulting spot kick past Whitby goalie Nick Liversedge, despite the on-loan Darlington stopper getting a strong glove onto the inside of his right-hand post, the momentum though, narrowly carried the ball over the goal line.

However, on the spot justice appeared to be done on the stroke of half-time when Kevin Burgess' driven right-wing cross turned shot cannoned back off the near post onto Lake and trickled over the opposite goal line for 1-1.

Danny Brunskill replaced Tom Raw up front for Whitby early in the second half, but Marine started purposefully and retook the lead in style ten minutes after the restart.

It was Lawless who from nothing produced a sublime chip over Liversedge from 20 yards, with the unlucky keeper barely off his line, but the perfectly placed ball narrowly eluded his despairing clutches and dropped agonisingly into the net.

The Seasiders refused to let their heads drop and duly levelled the scores twelve minutes from time, just a minute after Bishop was replaced by veteran forward Lee Nogan who became one of three men in attack. And one of those- Brunskill, Whitby's leading scorer for the past three seasons, turned provider, flicking on for Rae to swivel in a style reminiscient of his team mate and despatch the ball low past Lake from 12 yards.

Late on, O'Donnell tried a lob from a similiar position as his team mate Lawless, but couldn't find the same execution and only succeeded in picking out the roof of the net.

Town have now lost just once in their last sixteen encounters after a disastrous five game losing run that kicked off the season. Just like the other Premier League, things are tight in the Unibond's top tier with the 13th-placed Blues sitting just six points off the relegation places but only seven from a play-off berth, going into Saturday's home game with crisis club Leigh Genesis.