Bay manager Mick Mulhern was clearly delighted to have seen his side defeat second top Dunston UTS, who he acknowledged to be one of the best teams in the league. Saturday’s 3-2 victory at Hillheads earned Whitley the First Division ‘Team of the Week’ award and the Mulhern heaped praise on his entire squad.
“It’s an excellent result, we’ve done our homework on them to be fair, but when I saw the team sheet it was evident that it was a possibility they were going to play a different way from what I’d expected. So we covered that before the game, how we’d deal with that and we hoped that if they were changing to a different shape from recent weeks we could catch them cold because sometimes it can be a bit unsettling while you’re adjusting.
“That’s exactly what we did, our start was brilliant, the attitude was brilliant, our shape was really good and I was really pleased that we stuck toe to toe with probably the best team in the league along with Consett. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves. Yes they’ve had a few chances and you’d expect that but we stood up to that. Tom’s done great, the back four have done great. We’ve had chances as well and it was a good football game to watch, so I’m delighted that we built on last week where we probably deserved to win. I was so pleased with a lot of what we did last week and to build on it this week was important. It’s the first time we’ve been consistent, following a decent performance with another one. So I’ve just been saying to the lads they’ve laid the marker down now, we’ve got to respond! It’s no good doing it a couple of weeks on and one week off, we’ve got to do it every week. We’ve got a run now when we’re playing all the top teams so we’ve got to be at our best, we can’t afford to have weeks off, otherwise the teams we play will give us a good hiding. I think the lads know that, so everyone’s buzzing and we’re all really pleased.
“It’s good that we’ve started the new year like this and given the fans something to shout about. I’m sure in their wildest dreams they didn’t expect that result, the way things have been going. It’s been a bit too much stop start this season.
“The goal that won it was a great finish from Olly. The lads did some great work defending as a group, the things we’ve worked on, getting that shape right when they’re out of possession. I thought the lads really showed great discipline today and man for man, right through the team everybody’s put a real shift in and looked after each other, they’ve done their own jobs and really played with pride and passion and with a lot of belief, and going into the latter part of the season it’s what you really need.
“It’s not as if we haven’t done this before. We’ve beaten some top teams, Hebburn and Benfield, two of the best teams in the league and then Whitby in the FA Cup so it’s not a case of ‘we haven’t done this before’. It was a great response from the lads and we’ve got to build on that. The lads who’ve come in over the last couple of weeks have taken their chance. They’ve been really patient; we’ve got a good group. Ben Christensen and Ryan Redford have come in and they want to keep the shirt and that’s pleasing, Olly’s come back from working away and they’re all making it difficult for the lads on the bench. Ibby’s come in a with a great deal of passion and is keeping out an ex-pro in Gavin. It’s all healthy competition!”
