UniBond League Cup

25th November 2009

Attendance - 121

Team - Campbell, Lyth, Jackson, Leeson, Burgess, Hussan (A Gildea - 97), Dalton (Charlton - 78), Hackworth, A Campbell (L Gildea - 106), Beadle, Scott.

Report - by Andy Baxter


A breezy, cold evening welcomed both teams out at the Turnbull in front of just 121 supporters. It took both teams a while to settle with the first effort coming from Guiseley's Mark Bett which was superbly smothered by the Whitby keeper, David Campbell. The visitors spent most of the opening 25 minutes in the Whitby half, the home side not only having to face Guiseley but up against the gusting wind in their faces which didn't help to allow any attractive football. Whitby really struggled to get into the Guiseley half and it was only the visitors who had any chances, although even they were few and far between. Lee Tuck did force Campbell into full stretch action and on the very rare occasions Whitby did manage to venture into the oppositions territory, far too often they were getting penalised for offside.
However, against the wind, in the last 10 minutes of the half Whitby finally started to look a little more positive although, in reality, both teams were not playing well and most supporters must have really wished they'd stayed at home in the warm instead of braving the cold weather to watch such a lack lustre, dreary first half. Whitby's only notable effort fell in the 40th minute with an opportunist over head kick from Andrew Campbell hitting the Guiseley side netting.

With the wind now at their backs, Whitby started much more positively in the 2nd half and a Leon Scott free kick from 25 yards flew inches wide of the Guiseley left hand post. But, with the game still in a stale mate situation, Guiseley replaced James Walshaw with Steve Burton in the hope of freshening things up and with 72 minutes on the clock, an untimely challenge from Whitby's Jimmy Beadle saw referee Steve Rowntree show him a yellow card whilst his victim, Craig Bentham, received a straight red card for his over zealous retaliation towards the Whitby player.

Whitby, with the extra man advantage for the final 16 minutes, should have capitalised more, but didn't, and although Harry Dunn introduced Karl Charlton for Ged Dalton with the view of killing off Guiseley, this didn't happen. Charlton did however manage a close effort from a half volley but extra time beckoned as both sides continued to cancel each other out in what was a very poor 90 minutes of football to watch.

Whitby commenced extra time more on top and Leon Scott's 20 yard shot forced Guiseley keeper, Worsnop, to tip over the bar, only moments later for Andrew Campbell's low effort again bringing the keeper into action. Both sides made changes and for Whitby, Alex Gildea entered the game to replace Ibrahim Hussan and 10 minutes later, his brother Liam Gildea replaced Andrew Campbell. With all 3 substitutes used, Whitby evened up the numbers when Karl Charlton suddenly pulled up, limping off with hamstring trouble.

With time now running out, Guiseley had the final few efforts, with Steve Burton's powerful shot flying just wide, Luke Melcher's shot harmlessly missing and Mark Bett's 20 yard effort saved by David Campbell.

With 120 minutes of the game complete and both sides still locked at 0-0, the penalty shootout arrived, with the visitors starting proceedings. In the end, Guiseley missed one and Campbell saved another whilst Whitby netted all 4 of their spot kicks to run out 4-3 winners.

After the match, Manager Harry Dunn said "it was a truly aweful game to watch and he was very disappointed that against 10 men, Whitby didn't pass the ball better. We did OK in the first half against the wind to keep Guiseley from scoring but as the 2nd half went on, and we had the advantage of the wind behind us, we simply got worse. Overall it was a very poor performance and it is just not good enough".

As a spectator, I can only agree that it was a terrible game to endure for 120 minutes and overall, it was only worth 3 out of 10