UniBond Premier Division

12th February 2005

Attendance - 245

Team - Campbell, Williams, Veart, Farthing, Linighan, Nicholson, McTiernan (Gildea.L), Scaife, Jones, Ormerod (Robinson), Gildea.A - Sub not used Johnson

Report - by Andrew Snaith - Whitby Town climbed back up to third in the table thanks to goals in the 91st and 92nd minutes in windswept Cheshire on Saturday.

The Blues welcomed back injury-plagued midfield duo Nicky Scaife and Alex Gildea, while Neil Bishop served his suspension for accumulated yellow cards. Former Barnsley striker Griff Jones, 20, signed from Runcorn made his debut for the Seasiders, with Liam Gildea dropping to the bench.

Only the determined efforts of a group of volunteers armed with pitch-forks saw the game go ahead after heavy rain in the North West. Even so, a strong gale gave a huge advantage to the home side in the first half. Dave Campbell had to react well to a deflected header looping goalwards early on, and was lucky to get a foul on the half-hour mark for a supposed push from the league's third-top scorer 21-goal Mike Moseley.

However, just two minutes later, Albion had the ball in the Whitby net, only for the offside flag to mute any cheers from the home faithful.

At the other end, Scott Nicholson poked over from a decent position in a rare Whitby attack. The second half was, as expected, a different affair, though Whitby never pressed home their advantage until the final five minutes.

With eleven minutes remaining, experienced South African Graham Robinson replaced Dave McTiernan, with Liam Gildea joining the fray at the expense of Ant Ormerod four minutes later.

The Blues began to rain in shots from distance with Alex Gildea firing narrowly over, and Scaife seeing his shot charged down. Nicholson came close with a ferocious low drive that keeper Paul Gibson did very well to hold on to.

With just a minute left, Graham Williams' explosive effort was brilliant tipped over at full stretch by the leaping Gibson. Whitby came close twice from successive corner before the shock breakthrough came.

Nothing seemed on when Williams floated over a looping ball from halfway, Albion players appealed for offside but Jones was able to head down for Liam Gildea to smash home an emphatic 20-yard volley that nearly ripped through the Witton netting- giving the despairing Gibson no chance.

And while Witton came to terms with being one down in the final minute, Williams forced his way past two defenders against the touchline before delivering an inch perfect driven cross for Jones to stab home from close range. Game over after a dramatic two minute spell.

The rain lashed down as the final whistle sounded immediately from the in-vain Witton restart. Whitby now up to 50 points from 27 games, just three points behind second-placed Farsley, who've played one extra despite their postponement at Matlock. However, Burscough hammered five past the Blues' local rivals Spennymoor and sit one place out of the play-offs in sixth but just four points behind Whitby, and two matches still in hand.