NRSC Final

3rd August 2005

Attendance - 538

Team - Campbell, Atkinson, Veart(Wells 40), Farthing, Hudson(Boyd 75), Nicholson, Brown(Ormerod 70), Scaife, Raw, Robinson, Richards(McTiernan 75).

Report - by Andrew Snaith - The Seasiders breezed past a Middlesbrough Academy side boosted by the addition of first-teamer Colin Cooper, to lift the North Riding Senior Cup on Wednesday night, the Blues first trophy in seven seasons. The bumper 538 crowd saw the home side take the lead on 23 minutes. An excellent run by the pacey Tom Raw saw the youngster tripped in the box, and Craig Veart, still 100% from the penalty spot, stepped up to beat Knight and open the scoring. On a rare breakaway, the lively Tom Craddock beat the Blues offside trap but saw his effort well saved by Dave Campbell, and later a fine goal-line clearance from Danny Farthing denied the visitors an equaliser. At the other end, the Unibond Premier side were putting together some silky play with Andy Brown pulling the strings down the right of midfield and Tom Raw looking very sharp alongside Graham Robinson up front. And just before the break, Robinson gave the hosts a two goal cushion when his back header beat Knight and dropped into the net slightly fortuitously- it was the South African's 100th career goal for the Town. Blues boss Dave Logan was to change things around- Billingham Synthonia winger Dave Wells had replaced Veart just before the interval, and Karl Richards dropped to left-back. But Whitby still looked neat, creative and composed. And so it proved when captain Scott Nicholson collected from deep and galloped into the Boro box before firing across Knight and inside the far post with aplomb for the killer touch. There was still time for Boro to bring another top-drawer save from Campbell but Whitby held out confidently. Paul Atkinson came close with a fizzing drive from distance late on but it stayed at three, with Raw unlucky not to get on the scoresheet after somehow getting past three defenders on the edge of the Boro six yard box, but a weak shot was saved low down by Knight.