UniBond Premier

5th November 2005

Attendance - 386

Team - Campbell, Brumwell, Veart(Robinson 62), Farthing, Hudson, Nicholson, Ormerod(Atkinson 70), Scaife, Raw, Wilford(Brunskill 67), Richards.

Report - by Andrew Snaith - The Blues tremendous home record continues with a sixth consecutive victory on Saturday in front of the highest league crowd of the season at the Turnbull Ground.

Whitby manager David Logan made three changes from the side that went down at Pickering in midweek. Craig Veart returned from injury and the rested Dave Campbell and Tom Raw were back in the starting line-up with Paul Atkinson and Danny Brunskill dropping to the bench and Ben Escritt missing out altogether.

With a history of giving away early goals and a complacent display on Tuesday, Whitby adopted a refreshing urgency in the opening stages of the match with no quarter given by either side as the game was played at a frenetic pace.

When it finally settled down, the hosts threatened first, when the pacey Raw’s 20 yard effort was pushed into the air by keeper Stuart Brock who caught the ball on the way down.

Telford’s David Andrewartha fired just wide for Telford but it was Whitby who grabbed the lead after winning a free-kick near the touchline in line with the edge of the box. Nicky Scaife’s driven ball found its way through a clutch of players to Aron Wilford who turned and fired home his 11th of the season from six yards.

Wilford came close moments later with another effort on the turn that skidded off the moist turf but Brock managed to smother the ball. However, it wasn’t long before the Seasiders doubled their advantage this time thanks to some neat interplay. Wilford twisted and turned before squaring for Ormerod to exchange headers with Scaife and advance forward to coolly side-foot past Brock.

Telford almost hit back within two minutes when Davion Hamilton slid in with Karl Richards, and poked inches wide while on the ground in the Whitby box.

With three minutes remaining in the first half, Whitby had a good chance to surely put the game to bed, but Danny Farthing headed wide from Veart’s corner.

The second half opened with the visitors coming agonisingly close to clawing their way back into the match when Hamilton’s outstretched leg at the far post just failed to meet Luke McNally’s right-wing cross.

However, it seemed all in vain on 55 minutes when Veart’s deep corner was headed Darren-Fletcher-like across goal and inside the top right corner of the net by Chris Hudson- his first goal for the Blues since re-signing in August.

Telford boss Bernard McNally made an attacking double substitution on the hour, with Hamilton and defender Neil Howarth making way for strike-pair Damien Charie and Dean Curtis.
But if there were any doubts about the result, these were roundly swept aside on 62 minutes when Wilford went down some 25 yards from goal. Telford keeper Brock obviously hadn’t seen Whitby’s first goal last week as the free-kick fell in almost the exact same position with skipper Scott Nicholson striding up and curling the ball perfectly into the same top-left corner of the net for a brilliant déjà vu moment to make it 4-0.

A flurry of substitutions followed as Logan took the opportunity to rest his players ahead of tonight’s long trip to Prescot. Moments after the fourth goal, Graham Robinson made his first appearance at the Turnbull since limping off in the 4-0 defeat against rivals Blyth back in August, with Veart making way. Then, Wilford and Ormerod took their bows with Danny Brunskill and Paul Atkinson introduced for the final 20 minutes.

But just as Whitby’s fourth immediately succeeded Telford’s changes, the visitors took advantage of the Blues’ restructuring when previously impeccable keeper Dave Campbell flapped at McNally’s cross and top-scorer Luke Reynolds slotted into the empty net from close range.

At the other end, Raw epitomised his afternoon with an excellent first touch to bring the ball down and then release Robinson whose angled drive was parried well at his near post by Brock. The former Kidderminster keeper then appeared to see Scaife’s inswinging free-kick late, just about touching the ball over the bar at the very last second.

To their credit, the away side kept plugging away with Raw required to head off his own line and Reynolds firing a pulsating drive that was matched only by Campbell’s tremendous reaction save to push the ball over and redeem his earlier error.

The only real disappointment for Whitby fans though, was Raw’s failure to grab the goal that his performance deserved, he came closest with two minutes remaining but his ferocious 20 yard effort was touched wide by Brock.