WHITLEY BAY 1 ASHINGTON 5
Tuesday 13th September
An out of sorts Whitley turned in their poorest league performance of the season on Tuesday evening, suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of Northumbrian rivals Ashington in front of 301 fans at Hillheads. Adding to their misery, three players sustained bad injuries with Ross Wilkinson (concussion), Steve Gibson (knee) and Adam Shanks(foot) all likely to be sidelined in the coming weeks.
With Tom Flynn unavailable, Reserves keeper Michael Hammond made his first appearance for over two years while defender Ryan Keltie was in the starting eleven for the first time this season.
The Colliers went ahead inside the fifth minute after Ben Harmison had slotted the ball under the advancing Hammond and it trickled towards goal. Whether it would have crossed the line is questionable but Lee McAndrew raced through to force it into the net.
Whitley’s first attempt on goal came in the 11th minute when Josh Nearney cut in from the right but the Hartlepool loanee, making his home debut, sent his shot high over the bar. Chris McDonald made a vital defensive clearance four minutes later, whipping the ball away from danger as Ashington threatened to double their lead.
Whitley suffered a major blow with 20 minutes on the clock when Ross Wilkinson rose to challenge for a high ball into the Ashington goalmouth but visiting keeper Conor Grant, in attempting to punch the ball clear, caught the Bay defender on the head and Wilkinson fell to the ground. After lengthy treatment, he was helped from the field dazed and was taken to hospital where he was kept in overnight suffering from severe concussion.
Things got worse for Whitley seven minutes later when Angelos Eleftheriadis was penalised for a tug on McAndrew and the Colliers were awarded a penalty. Ex-Bay midfielder Kyle Downey stepped forward and comfortably converted the spot kick to give the visitors a two goal advantage.
Much of the play for the remainder of the half was confined to midfield with neither keeper being tested. As a result, conversation among the fans centred more on the surprising decision of the referee to approve the visitors using their normal home kit meaning that both sides were playing with dark striped shirts under floodlights. The result was that from the terraces at least, distinguishing between the teams was at times very difficult.
If the first half had been a major disappointment for the home side, the second period began in much more promising fashion with a far greater degree of urgency as right from the kick off Whitley forced Ashington onto the back foot. Barely two minutes had been played when Kempster was tripped by Ryan Bell as he broke through on goal. Chris McDonald played the free kick into the goalmouth where Kempster stooped to head past Grant into the corner of the net. It was just the start they needed and lifted by the goal and with the crowd really getting behind them, Whitley pushed forward in search of an equaliser. Two minutes later it almost came when Nearney raced clear down the right and his low ball flew across goal but Robertson slotted his shot just the wrong side of the back post. For the first time in the game, Ashington were being put under sustained pressure and it came very much against the run of play and with an element of fortune when in the 62nd minute they got their third goal. A quickly taken free kick found Gunn in space on the right and when he played the ball back from near the by-line, Sampson’s cross took a deflection off Keltie and flew past Hammond for an unfortunate own goal.
A minute later Shanks was brought down just outside the Ashington penalty area by a dangerous two footed challenge from Paul Dunn. The referee immediately pulled a card out of his pocket but instead of the red many people expected it was only yellow and the defender stayed on the pitch. Despite the injury, Shanks continued but after the game he was taken to hospital where a suspected fracture was instead diagnosed as a badly bruised foot.
Whitley’s woes continued to grow when Steve Gibson, on as a first half substitute for Wilkinson, had to be replaced 17 minutes from time after suffering a nasty knee injury. Despite this latest setback, Whitley’s recent record of scoring crucial late goals gave reason to hope for a comeback in the closing stages, but this time it was not to be and it was Ashington who scored twice more in the last six minutes, rubbing salt into the Bay wounds with two clinical finishes from substitute David Dormand. While the goals gave the final scoreline a rather harsh look, Whitley can have no complaints at the outcome as the Colliers looked much the better side on the night.
WHITLEY BAY: Hammond, Nearney, McDonald, Eleftheriadis, Keltie, Wilkinson (Gibson 21mins, Patton 73mins), Haley(Fryatt 60mins), Fowler, Shanks, Robertson, Kempster.
Referee: Andrew Kitchen
Cautions: Eleftheriadis, Shanks, Keltie.
Attendance: 301
