Whitley play their first game for three weeks when they travel to Shildon this afternoon, while for the Railwaymen it will be their first outing since the opening day of the month. February’s prolonged wet weather has frustrated players and fans alike and both sides will be pleased that today’s game has been given the go ahead. Shildon are chasing promotion and are currently well placed, sitting in third position with the top three due to be promoted to the Northern Premier League at the end of the season. Whitley on the other hand need the points to move away from the lower end of the table. An unusual statistic is that the most frequent outcome of games between the sides at Dean Street has been a draw, as happened last season when Nathan Haslam took charge of the Bay team for the first time and picked up a well deserved point from a 2-2 draw (Whitley’s first goal pictured). Shildon were narrow 2-1 winners when the sides met at Hillheads in October.
This weekend’s game is being played on Leap Year Day. Whitley’s last game to fall on this date was back in 1992 in the HFS Loans Northern Premier League Premier Division when they were beaten 5-0 away to Fleetwood Town, now of course a Football League One side. Previous to that, Whitley’s last Northern League game on Leap Year Day was in 1964 when they defeated Billingham Synthonia 2-1 at Hillheads, the goals coming from John Ritchie and John Elliott.
