Friendly

7th August 2004

Attendance -

Team - Escritt, Atkinson, Yale, Obern, Farthing, Lynch, Jackson, A Gildea, Ormerod, Johnson, L Gildea. Subs: Veart, Mellanby, McTiernan, P Campbell.

Report - by Andrew Snaith - The red side of the A171 edged this bad-tempered North Yorkshire derby at the Turnbull Ground on Saturday. Two first-half strikes from former Sheffield United youngster Tyrone Thompson won the game for the visitors, despite former Boro forward Anthony Ormerod pulling one back for the Blues. Whitby gave debuts to Farthing in central defence and Jackson in midfield with Ormerod returning from a hamstring pull to lead the forward line. And it was Ormerod who should’ve put Whitby ahead on eight minutes. The former England Youth International round Boro keeper Gareth Downey with ease, but from a great position, unselfishly cut the ball back only for Nick Heinemann to expertly slide the ball off his own line. From then on, the Nationwide Conference side dominated and only an excellent reaction save from Whitby stopper Ben Escritt denied Scott Kerr from opening the scoring with a powerful angled drive. Defender Mark Obern headed the resulting corner off his own line. The pressure finally told just two minutes later when Whitby’s rearguard went missing and Thompson had the freedom of the borough to send a simple diving header past Escritt from six yards. Five minutes later with just half an hour gone, it was 2-0 as Thompson left full-back David Yale trailing in his wake. Thompson sprinted clear to slot past Escritt once again as Boro’s sizable travelling contingent celebrated. The Blue half of the crowd then came to life and willed the hosts back into the match and they duly obliged within 90 seconds. Boro’s defence were left appealing for offside arms raised, as Alex Gildea’s through ball set Ormerod clear to sidefoot into the bottom-right corner of the net for 2-1- game on. The Algerinos were shaken up as the valiant Codheads went on the offensive, and the scores could and should’ve been level on 34 minutes. Keeper Downey was caught well out of position only for Liam Gildea’s agonising looping chip to bounce back off the crossbar as Scarborough somehow held their fragile lead. Into the second half, and Boro completely changed their side, even issuing two team sheets as ten changes were made. Harry Dunn in turn brought on Craig Veart, Danny Mellanby and Dave McTiernan to try and turn things around. However, football took a back seat as players traded and blows and some vicious studs-up challenges, with three very generous bookings- Burton, Lyth, Johnson, Veart and Mellanby all involved. Mellanby came closest to finding the net in the second half when he headed wide from close range. In the end, always a disappointment for the Seasiders to lose out to their bitter rivals from down the coast but a useful showing and some decent meant they matched their more-privileged neighbours all the way and gave hope for their upcoming Unibond League campaign.