UniBond Premier

27th April 2005

Attendance - 451

Team - Campbell, Atkinson, Veart, Farthing, Williams, A.Gildea, Ormerod(McTiernan), Nicholson, L.Gildea, Robinson, Wells (Johnson) - Sub not used - Obern

Report - by www.whitbytoday.co.uk - WHITBY will have to earn promotion through the play-offs after a late Workington penalty ended their dreams of winning the Unibond League title.
The Blues cannot finish any higher than fourth because their goal difference is significantly worse than the teams in the top three.
This means Whitby will be away to whoever ends up third in the league in the play-off semi-final, which is expected to be played on Monday afternoon, kick off 3pm.
This is despite appeals by Hyde and Workington against the league's decision to chalk off crisis club Spennymoor's results.
The two claim they are being unfairly penalised by the ruling.
But a league spokesman said yesterday that the likeliest outcome was that the play-offs would still go ahead as scheduled.
On Wednesday night against Workington, Whitby had a decent chance to open the scoring within 10 minutes when Graham Robinson shot over the top when well placed.
The visitors forced their way back into the match and created a couple of chances.
First, Graham Goulding blazed over after the Whitby defence had failed to clear and then Mark Eccles cut inside from the left but shot tamely at keeper Dave Campbell.
Whitby's most constructive move of the first half saw Graham Robinson neatly flick the ball over his head before crossing on the turn for skipper Scott Nicholson to head goalward, but keeper Adam Collin hung on.
Ex-Carlisle man Kyle May was booked when his handball stopped Ant Ormerod in his tracks – this incensed the away supporters who moaned about referee G Kellett's lack of consistency and failure to punish some stronger challenges.
Workington spurned a great chance to take the lead on the stroke of half-time as Will Varty's low driven cross bounced up just as Johnston went to hit it, and the resulting shot cleared the bar by some distance.
As the second half got under way, the tension was obvious with neither side in a position to drop any points through careless mistakes.
Johnston stung Campbell's gloves with a swerving right-footer and when livewire ex-Watford striker Gary Cohen flicked the ball on for Matthew Henney 15 yards out, a goal looked inevitable, but he blasted just over.
Whitby sub Dave McTiernan almost became an instant hero on the hour when, just a minute after entering the fray, he had a half-chance but got under the ball as the defence closed him down.
Full-back Craig Veart came close for the Blues with a deep free-kick which eluded everyone and dipped inches wide of the far post.
Workington finally made the breakthrough on 87 minutes when Johnston's shot struck the arm of defender Danny Farthing and the hitman remained cool and confident to whack home the spot-kick, sending Campbell the wrong way.
Whitby came close to levelling the scores at the death, but headers from Robinson and McTiernan were comfortably dealt with by Collin.