UniBond Premier Division

15th July 2006

Attendance - unknown

Team - Campbell, Atkinson, Davies, Brumwell, Ramm, Scaife, McTiernan, Hughes, Raw, Brunskill, Swales.

Report - Whitby gave debuts to 20-year-old centre-half Jamie Ramm from Pickering Town, 21-year-old former York City left-back Sean Davies and ex-Darlington midfielder Chris Hughes, 24. Versatile forward Mark Swales, 23 represented his hometown club for the first time since leaving for Bridlington in February 2004.

As it turned out, it was two members of last season's squad who were at the heart of much of the Blues' best work as a rejuvenated Tom Raw looked completely unaffected by previous hamstring troubles alongside 19-goal top scorer Danny Brunskill. Ably supported by Dave McTiernan and Swales, the duo were a regular threat with Brunskill using all his strength to beat two defenders before seeing his 12-yard shot parried and Raw toe-poked a testing rebound over the bar from close range.

However, the Northern League Division One side's number ten was equally impressive with a mazy run leaving two Whitby defenders flat-footed before Campbell parried a low drive and Phil Brumwell, playing against his former club, headed the goabound follow-up off his own line.

As expected in the first pre-season friendly of the season, the first 90 minutes of football since April for most, the tempo was pedestrian at best, not helped by the blazing sunshine baking the 50 or so spectators and players in the former County Durham mining town.

Tall Hughes with his mane of bleached blonde hair looked able alongside a similarly built Nick Scaife in the heart of the midfield- ironically both have recently been linked with Town's Unibond Premier rivals Gateshead- now managed by ex Blues' boss Tony Lee.

The half-time interval saw an Eriksson-like string of substitutions with reserved new manager Lee Nogan introducing several new faces including solid-looking former Middlesbrough defender Christian Hanson, 24 and dimunitive striker Gavin Parkin, another former Darlington prospect.

New forward pairing Swales and Parkin worked hard against taller, stronger opponents with McTiernan more than useful down the right. As both sides ran out of legs towards the end, there was still time for Seasiders keeper Ben Escritt, on for Campbell in one of the multiple changes to make a superb reflex tip over and deny the Lawyers' a suprise victory.