UniBond League Challenge Cup

14th December 2005

Attendance - 145

Team - Escritt, Brumwell, Veart (Barber), Hudson, Nicholson, Atkinson (Batchelor), Ormerod, Aziz (Scaife), Richards, Wilford, Brunskill.

Report - from www.whitbytoday.co.uk - Whitby Town progressed to the next round of the Unibond League Cup but were only minutes away from an embarrassing exit to Unibond First Division strugglers Goole AFC.
With striker Tommy Raw rested Blues' boss Dave Logan paired Aron Wilford up front with Danny Brunskill with new midfielder Wayne Aziz continuing in the centre of midfield.
Paul Atkinson was drafted into the midfield as was Karl Richards.
The home side did not waste much time in attacking the Goole goal but in a breakaway the visitors surprised the home faithful when Constable tried his luck from 22 yards and his effort hit Chris Hudson's back and looped over the stranded Ben Escritt.
Whitby continued to press and within minutes were level when Aron Wilford poked the ball home after a scramble.
It was all one way traffic in the first-half with Karl Richards, Ant Ormerod and Danny Brunskill all going close.
But with the half-time whistle approaching, Whitby took the lead their play deserved when Richards headed home powerfully at the far post.
The second-half began in much the same fashion with Whitby bombarding Goole's goal but they could not kill the game off.
And in the 61st minute, with Whitby taking their foot off the pedal, Goole got a surprise equaliser.
Lively forward Steve Davey got in between Scott Nicholson and Chris Hudson and headed over the advancing Escritt.
And another shock was to follow on 72 minutes when Davey played a one-two with his strike partner and fired home to put the visitors ahead.
Whitby were stung back into action and camped in the Goole half.
With time running out and more chances having gone begging, Ormerod was played through and calmly slotted past the keeper with only four minutes left.
The weary players got stuck in again for the extra-time time period and by this stage Craig Veart and Atkinson had been replaced by Mark Barber and Chris Batchelor.
Wayne Aziz was replaced by Nicky Scaife but he did not last long as he went off with a shoulder injury following a strong challenge.
His injury is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season.
With the Blues continuing to press it was Goole who went closest to scoring during the extra half hour when Karl Richards' attempted clearance crashed against his own crossbar and to safety.
But with less than a minute remaining before penalties, and Goole down to nine men, Whitby won a corner.
And amid the jostling and shirt-pulling in the area, defender Chris Hudson ghosted in to head powerfully into the top right hand corner.
That was to be the last action of the game and spared the anxious home fans the dreaded penalty shoot-out.