WHITLEY BAY 2 ASHINGTON 2
Saturday 30th September
Kyle Patton’s equaliser four minutes into added time gave Whitley a well deserved point from a game they might have won convincingly on their first half display but looked like losing after a complete turnaround in fortunes after the interval.
The first fifteen minutes was evenly contested with both sides going close. Inside two minutes, Liam Brooks, back in the starting eleven after being on the bench for the previous three games, challenged for a high ball but Ashington keeper Conor Grant leapt to punch clear. A minute later Tom Flynn made a comfortable save when Ben Harmison got a shot on target. After ten minutes Brooks latched onto a long ball and broke away before driving a shot just wide of goal and into the side netting. As play switched rapidly from one end to the other, Dale Pearson’s close range attempt flew straight into the arms of the grateful Flynn before Andy Robertson was only just wide of the mark following good work by Brooks and Kempster. Whitley were causing problems with their pace down the flanks and a long ball was mis-headed by Lewis Strafford and Brooks got in a header that Grant held. On the half hour, Potter played the ball in for Josh Nearney to power a stinging 20 yard shot on goal with Grant managing to parry the attempt. One minute later, Alex Kempster took the ball down the left before putting a low cross into the goalmouth. Robertson and defender Strafford both attempted to make contact but the ball eluded everyone and flew past Grant into the far corner of the net. If there was an element of fortune about the goal there was no doubt that Whitley thoroughly deserved their lead and having got their noses in front they dominated the remainder of the half. In the 35th minute Robertson glanced a header inches wide after Kempster’s cross had been played back across goal by Nearney. Kempster was tormenting the Ashington defence and two minutes later his ball in from the left found Tom Potter unmarked but he blazed his first time effort high over the bar when a little more steadiness would surely have seen him score. Pouring forward in relentless fashion, it was now the turn of Brooks to supply the cross into the goalmouth and Robertson seemed certain to score but stretching to make contact with the ball, he managed to scoop it over the bar from barely a yard out. Nearney was then provider for Brooks but the tall striker could not quite get a toe on the ball as it flew across the face of goal.
Despite their dominance, Whitley had only a slender one goal advantage at the break and in a devastating change of fortunes, the visitors gained the upper hand within ten minutes of the resumption. There seemed little danger to the Bay goal when Luke Salmon attempted a shot on target from 15 yards but when the ball rebounded back into his path the Ashington defender’s second attempt flew beyond Flynn into the far top corner to level the score just three minutes after the restart. Unsettled by the equaliser, Whitley looked anxious and lost their defensive discipline, allowing a pass from Pearson to reach Harmison who broke away down the left wing unchallenged and his cross into the box was turned home from close range by the unmarked Lee McAndrew, handing the Colliers a 55th minute lead. Another cross by Harmison, this time to the back post, was headed wide by Buchanan but two minutes later McAndrew’s ball across the face of goal evaded all attempts to make contact.
In pouring rain Whitley gradually worked their way back into the game and within three minutes of coming off the bench, Matty Cornish struck the top of the bar from 18 yards. Into the final 15 minutes, Ben Harmison should have put the game beyond Whitley when played through by former Bay midfielder Paul Antony, but having taken the ball past Flynn, the Ashington striker was faced with an open goal only for the Bay keeper to stretch out and fingertip his shot wide of the post. Five minutes later another excellent save, a one handed effort by Flynn, denied Pearson and kept Whitley in the game. The rain suddenly cleared and in the final ten minutes, with more players pushed forward, Whitley forced Ashington to defend in depth. Man of the match Alex Kempster brought yet another save from Grant while Ross Wilkinson unsettled the visitors’ rearguard winning high balls and directing headers towards goal but when his header from Potter’s cross was cleared off the line as the game entered stoppage time it looked as if the final chance had gone. However, in the fourth minute of added time, Callum Anderson floated a free kick into the six yard box and Wilkinson again made contact before substitute Kyle Patton bravely got his head to the ball, forcing it over the line and picking up a face injury in the process. The goal sent the Bay fans in the 379 strong crowd wild with delight and left the visitors frustrated as victory was snatched from their grasp so late in the game.
WHITLEY BAY: Flynn, Nearney, Walker, Haley, Wilkinson, Anderson, Potter, Charmey(K Patton 83mins) Robertson (Cornish 66mins), Brooks (Jasper 76mins), Kempster
Substitutes not used: Hall, Glen-Ravenhill
Referee: Jonny Urwin Cautions: Charmey, Haley
Attendance: 379
