Along with many other people who witnessed Tuesday’s Northumberland Senior Cup tie at North Shields, Bay manager Marc Nash felt aggrieved that major decisions by the officials denied Whitley what would have been a deserved victory. “I’m not sure I know where to start. The wounds are still raw and a lot of people are talking about how good we were but sadly overshadowed by some poor decisions in the big moments that went against us. I also feel like we’ve participated in a cracking game of football and a fantastic advert for non-league. We attacked from the off then weathered a storm in which they scored a pen from a shocking decision. We were reeling from that and Dan Lister has been on top form to keep us in the tie up until the 20 minute mark. After that we got into our stride and played some scintilating stuff. We passed it well, counter attacked and created a top class leveller by Kempster. Of course we had a massive slice of luck when taking the lead but I felt we were on top anyway so going in at half time we were confident about the 2nd half. I have to say we were excellent and controlled the midfield with the game’s stand our performers Matty Cornish and Tom Potter particularly impressive. Jasper should have wrapped the game up with a straight forward chance then Potter has been brought down in the box and that’s the most frustrating part as they get a penalty for the ball hitting Noah Summers in the chest!!
Things just conspired against us and although we had to dig in last 5 minutes because of all the high balls into box I thought we were going to deservedly win. Time was up when Jack Walker put the ball out of play but they’ve been allowed those extra seconds to pump another ball into the box and then a scramble forces the equalizer. Into extra time it was still all to play for but there was a sense that the players had lost the game in the heads. We tried to galvanise them but maybe that’s where the youthfulness has counted against us as we didn’t recover. Fair play to Shields, they have a great squad of players who possess that winning mentality and that’s why they are a top 4 side and reached two cup finals last year. We are hard to beat but we need the ruthless streak to coincide with our style of play. The reaction of the lads after the game was to look forward to Saturday in the Vase and get a positive result.”
